Two months ago we referred to Belgian crime statistics, stating that Belgium had a higher murder and manslaughter rate than the United States. It has been pointed out to us that the Belgian and American statistics cannot be compared, since Belgium includes attempted crimes in its crime records, while America does not

Some commentators like to point out that many of the most passionate and bravest defenders of the West are women, citing Italian writer Oriana Fallaci and others as examples. But women like Ms. Fallaci, brave as they might be, are not representative of all Western women. If you look closely, you will notice that, on average, Western women are actually more supportive of Multiculturalism and massive immigration than are Western men.

The world’s bureaucratic elites, including the United Nations, are demanding that the rich nations spend 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product on development aid. This is more than $300 billion a year, or well over $3 trillion over the next decade. The demand for such huge funds is given as the main rationale for global taxes to be levied on the world’s taxpayers, outside the control of and accountability to national governments.

The French response to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has been characteristic: to condemn Israel’s attempts to defend its borders, and to propose a multi-national force, under the command of the UN, instead. This solution has been adopted. But when it came to offering the necessary  troops, France backed off, promising 200 at most, while Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh each offered 1,000 men. The latter are Islamic states which, like Hezbollah, wish to abolish the old Lebanon, with its Christian ascendancy and its belief in the European idea, and which, moreover, refuse to recognize Israel, and concur in the view that it should be wiped from the map. France’s recourse to the UN seemed like another gesture in its long-drawn out suicide, another way of siding with the Islamists against the West.

We, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are generally happier making grand gestures than applying ourselves to issues that are actually within our gift. We spend days haggling over the precise wording of our Declaration on the Anniversary of the End of World War Two. We work ourselves into a lather of indignation about the use of the death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago. But on the question which most immediately affects our work — the duplication of all our facilities in Brussels and Strasburg — we seem paralysed.

Is about the size of a book(let!) handed out by the Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security (don't laugh!) entitled, "My fundamental rights in the European Union".

The EU "citizens" on the front cover are even smaller than their rights. Midgets in the EU's scheme of things.

The ruler is Made in Great Britain and is a Royal Sovereign Product! Unlike a tape measure which I own, it does not need European certification to prove that it accurately measures length.

The Belgian authorities have destroyed archives and records relating to the persecution and deportation of Jews in Belgium in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of this happened as recently as the late 1990s. This was revealed during hearings in the Belgian Senate last Spring. Though the Senate report dates from 4 May the Belgian press has not yet mentioned the affair. [update 3 Sept.: The Brussels Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen published an article on page 6 of its 14 Dec. 2005 edition, under the title: Archives about Persecution of Jews were Intentionally Destroyed] The Senate report says that “documents about the period 1930-1950 have been destroyed on a massive scale.”

This is my first posting since the Conservative Party shelved its plans to withdraw from the federalist European People’s Party (EPP). Like many of you, I am disappointed by the climb-down. David Cameron now says that the break will come in 2009, adding in a Daily Telegraph article of 14 July that his commitment “is not an aspiration, it is a guarantee — and it will be delivered.”

Put like that, it would be churlish not to believe him. None the less, the delay seems to me unnecessary and damaging. By postponing the decision over the past nine months, we created a good deal of harmful bickering, as opponents of David Cameron’s promise sought — successfully, as it turned out — to push him into a U-turn. We now risk three more years of the same.

Last Monday the European Commission reported that cosmetics manufacturers selling their products within the EU have agreed that they will provide consumers with more information about potential side effects of the products, as well as more detailed descriptions of what the products contain.

Here is the catch. The cosmetics industry agreed to provide customers with on-request information about their products, which means that concerned customers have to actively seek out the information. There is of course nothing wrong with this. However the cosmetics industry agreed to this move because it was better than the alternative, which was to print costly leaflets similar to those included with pharmaceutical products. So basically the European Commission had given the cosmetics industry an offer they could not refuse. This seems to have become the norm in the European Union.

The European Commission is considering granting up to €5 million a year to news channel Euronews to broadcast in Arabic. EU communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom told Euobserver: “In the climate we have had this is absolutely the right idea.” Euronews currently broadcasts in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Meanwhile, the EU Presidency, chaired by Finland, publishes a weekly summary of Euronews in Latin, the Conspectus Rerum Latinus. Classical Latin is the sixth language of the Presidency web site in addition to modern English, Finnish, Swedish, French and German. According to the Presidency the weekly EU review in Latin “keeps Professor Pekkanen and Docent Pitkäranta busy rendering 20th century terms into the Latin idiom.”

Latin and Arabic: Europe’s past and Europe’s future?