Well I went along to the Movement for European Reform's conference this morning, in order that I could furnish you, dear readers, with an accurate report of their doings, and specifically how David Cameron could possibly justify his position. After all, it is simply a restatement of what British governments have said ever since the country was railroaded into the EEC more than thirty years ago. We will be at the heart of Europe, In Europe not Run by Europe, effecting change from the inside and so on. The problem with this comfortable approach to the EU is that it has failed. As Dr Johnson said about second marriages, "a triumph of hope over experience".

EUReferendum takes a couple of pot shots at the mini conference in Brussels later today. And even Tory Diary has its doubts.

This is it. This is the great statement on Europe that will ensure that those of a sceptic disposition keep the faith with Dave Cameron and chums.

A movie trailer from MineYourOwnBusiness:

Not having anything better to do, the British government in its wisdom has decided that churches must put up no smoking signs.

Apparently the godless, witless pack of heathens have obviously never been into a church. If they had they would have noticed that they are places of worship. People don’t smoke in churches as it would be considered both rude, and somewhat sacreligious.

A quote from Paul Weyrich on CNSnews.com, 2 March 2007

It always has amazed me when left-wing governments or their representative political parties accuse their opposition of intolerance. What could be more intolerant than criminalizing one’s opponents? What could be less democratic that changing the laws and allowing non-citizens the vote in order to win an election? Who is more intolerant than leftists, who condescendingly believe that only they have the answers to society’s problems?

This is what a coalition of various socialist and liberal parties in Belgium want everyone to believe: that wanting to limit the number of immigrants in a society means one is a racist.

Norway's most important paper Aftenposten ran a story earlier this week saying that 65% of the rape crimes in Oslo were committed by foreigners, even though they only represent a mere 23% of the population in the Norwegian capital. The article was prompted by a call by the Rape Commission (Voldtektsutvalget) to the imams to put rapes and the attitude against women on the agenda.

According to the German Catholic website Kreuz.net Monsignor Walter Mixa, the Catholic Bishop of Augsburg, is being “knifed in a brotherly fashion” by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference. Cardinal Lehmann admonished the Bishop on his statements on German family policy. Mixa said last week that mothers who are encouraged to hand over their child directly after birth to a child day care centre are being degraded into “child bearing machines.”

Cardinal Lehmann considers the drastic choice of words by the Bishop of Augsburg to be wrong. “Bishop Mixa should have considered more deeply that many parents have no relatives living near them and have to rely on children’s nursery facilities,” the Cardinal said. Bishop Mixa remains steadfast. He told the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday that he would use the term “child bearing machines” again.

A quote from Daniel Hannan on his blog, 1 March 2007

There are, a senior Commission official admitted to me this week, five countries where he and his colleagues are determined to avoid a referendum: Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Poland. Spot a pattern? Go a little further north, to Norway and Iceland, and you find large majorities against joining the EU at all.

A quote from a Romanian witch at ananova.com, 27 February 2007

You cannot pretend you are a real witch if you cannot help a businessman get the European Union funds he wants. For example, only the other day I had a young businessman who came to me with his papers applying for European funds. I spread the cards on his documents, said my spells and splashed the papers with some potions. It only cost him about £40 for my charms but when he gets the money thanks to my spells he will be happy and I will be happy because he will bring me new customers.

The European Commission has published a unilateral judgement declaring that Swiss company tax law is “incompatible” with the free-trade agreement which has been in force between it and Switzerland since 1972. The Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, claims that tax breaks for certain holding companies are equivalent to state aids and that, where these companies in fact operate throughout the EU, the tax regime should be changed. Acting under pressure from Paris and Berlin, the Commission fired an initial warning shot in September 2005, criticising the fact that holding companies enjoy tax breaks at federal level and are hardly taxed at cantonal level either. The Swiss have reacted angrily, saying that tax matters, especially the tax prerogatives of the cantons, are a matter of Swiss sovereignty and therefore not up for discussion. French Socialist Deputies have attacked the ‘predatory practices’ of tax havens – by which they presumably mean anywhere that has lower taxes than France. In fact, Switzerland does not have particularly low corporate tax: the accounting firm KPMG puts it in 13th place in the world, with a corporate tax rate of 21 per cent on profits. Equivalent rates in Central Europe, Cyprus and the Republic of Ireland are much lower but of course much higher in France (33.3 per cent) and Germany (38.3 per cent). Some cantons have much lower rates than the national Swiss average, however; Zug, for instance, has corporate tax at 16.4 per cent.

H/T The European Foundation