Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-01-Speech-3-209"
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"en.20060201.19.3-209"2
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".
Mr President, we have seen the proposed Constitution for Europe rejected by the French and Dutch people. The computer-implemented inventions and port services directives were also rejected. Despite these rejections, the drive towards harmonisation goes relentlessly onwards, even when it has nothing to do with trade or EU efficiency and is bad for citizens.
So here it is, another second-class act, the Postal Directive. This is none of the EU’s business, and I advise the EU to stay out of it. The Postal Directive seeks to impose value added tax on postage at a time when letter writing is under great competition from e-mail. The UK does not want it! The British Post Office is now 371 years old, and it was the British in 1840 who brought out the first postage stamp, bearing the head of Queen Victoria.
Now the EU wants to stamp its dead hand of inefficiency on it. A high watermark of philatelic interference, perforated only by ignorance of British tradition and a wish to kill letter writing stone dead. From Penny Black to EU attack in 166 years! Is this progress?
In 2004 the Postmaster General stated categorically that the British Government did not want VAT on stamps. The Royal Mail told me this very week that it does not want it, as it would be bad for small businesses, charities and customers. The British people do not want it. They are already paying for the cost of the EU’s common agricultural policy.
What would Stanley Gibbons have said from the Strand in London if he had still been alive? I suggest he would have published a book with pictures of MEPs who monkey with British postal traditions entitled ‘Stanley Stamps Gibbon Catalogue’.
When UKIP vote on this report, it will vote in accordance with the wishes of UK citizens. I hope British MEPs stick up for Britain. The people will watch as Europhiles submit their nations to another excessive stamp of EU authority. Thank you, Mr President, and good luck to the interpreters!"@en1
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