Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-12-11-Speech-3-018-000"
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"en.20131211.3.3-018-000"2
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"Mr President, I know it is seasonal to talk about the 12 days of Christmas, but I want to talk about the 21-day count down to the opening of the doors to 29 million poor people from Romania and Bulgaria. It does, I think, mark a pivotal moment in British politics. Very often in Britain, MEPs complain that they do not have a high enough profile with the public. I want to try and change that today because Brigadier Geoffrey Van Orden sitting behind me here, British Conservative, was the rapporteur, the sponsor for Bulgaria joining the European Union and for us having a total open door to all of those people.
So well done, Brigadier, I want all the British people to know who you are and what your achievements are and of course what free movement means – it means free health care; it means free education; it means free access to the benefit system; it means an open door to the criminal gangs and the modern day Fagins who will of course benefit from the fact that London is the most successful and wealthy international city in Europe. Already the situation is so bad that 92% of ATM crime in London last year was committed by Romanians. I am not scapegoating in any way and I know that a lot of people that come from Bulgaria and Romania will be very decent people who want to work hard and want to better their lives, but free movement does not work in the European Union now that we have countries that are poor. For a man that comes from Bucharest and works in London and gets child benefit for the two children back home: that child benefit is worth more than he can actually earn doing a menial job in Bucharest and that is the reason why the numbers that come to Britain will indeed be absolutely enormous.
I have said for some time, and now the British people agree, enough is enough. 80% of the British people do not want those borders to come down in 21 days’ time. It is unfair. It is unfair on working people. It is leading to lower wages. It is leading to higher youth unemployment and it is leading to divided communities. But of course it does not end here, because our Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, with the full support of Labour and the Lib Dems, now wants to extend this principle of open borders, as he says himself, from the Atlantic to the Urals. So it means countries like Kazakhstan, indeed the Ukraine, joining the European Union. I see that Tony Blair is now helping Albania join the European Union. Well good luck to them with that. We even want to extend it to Turkey joining the European Union. Our message is that a turkey is just for Christmas; it is not for political union; we do not want open borders.
And, Mr Cameron, do not, next week at the summit, surrender in any way to deeper European military integration. Many in this room would have bombed Syria had Europe had that capability. Thank God it did not. On open doors, on European armies, the voters will have their say next May, and I think there is going to be a radical change. I think there is going to be an earthquake in British politics next May."@en1
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