Wickham's musings from Chalke

Yesterday for about six hours in the morning Venus traversed the sun for the first time since 1882. The next traverse is in 2012 visible in the pacific and the next after that will be in 2247 – 243 years from now.

The sun shone all morning and I got an image through my binoculars onto a piece of paper at about 8.30 am. The small black dot was in the top right part of the sun. When I saw images on TV they generally showed the black dot in the lower left part of the sun. I was reassured however that one did show the dot in the top right as mine had and it was one that displayed the image onto a screen like mine.

If I remember my school physics correctly the image through binoculars would normally focus at the eyepiece which only produced a tiny bright image of the sun so I moved the paper away and got a larger clearer image about three feet away. The image must have inverted when I went away from the normal focal point.

The weather was fantastically good at Arromanches and other places along the coast of Normandy for the celebrations.

The Americans were at Omaha Beach and the British at their beaches with a parade in Arromanches later.

I admired the stamina of our veterans. Some said they had been up late the previous night talking to old friends after travelling.

In the morning they had gone to cemeteries before the main event then attended the British parade during the afternoon.

President Chirac’s helicopter was delayed by early morning fog so everything was delayed about an hour. The veterans were kept standing while waiting to march. President Bush, Tony Blair, the Queen, President Putin and other heads of state including the German chancellor Schroder were there.

There was a main parade in late morning for all nations and President Chirac gave a speech then handed out Legion D’Honeur medals. There were flypasts and gun salutes from a British warship. Other warships including the big French aircraft carrier cruised off-shore.

In the afternoon the Mayor of Arromanches gave a speech of about seven minutes which was then repeated in English by an aide. The Queen then gave her speech. All the time the veterans who had taken part in the parade were standing in the sun.

I was a little surprised that the Queen made no mention of Arromanches and didn’t thank the villagers who had tended the wounded, provided food and shelter and were so welcoming to our troops sixty years ago. He had been full of praise in his speech and thanked the Queen. She stuck rigidly to praise of the veterans.

A few years ago we just had a Westminster parliament covering all the UK and local councils. Now we have the European Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and Stormont for Northern Ireland as well which is just more bureaucracy and cost.

In a week’s time there will be three elections in London, one for the local councils, one for the mayor and one for European MPs – all this and it still excludes the Westminster MPs.

I realise that in an expanded Europe there is a need for a European Parliament to harmonise strategic pan-European issues such as company law, food standards, human rights, maximum lorry weights and sizes and so on and we still need local councils to organise street cleaning and other local issues, so where do the other parliaments and assemblies fit in?

I have heard that food labelling such as salt and sugar content is likely to be standardised at European level. This is another example of the whittling away of the Westminster parliament’s powers.

Another complication is that Scottish MPs can still vote in the Westminster parliament on issues concerning England, Wales and Northern Ireland but Westminster’s non-Scottish MPs cannot vote in the Scottish parliament. The argument is that Scottish MPs need to vote on Westminster issues that affect Scotland and other joint issues like tax and defence, but it is still duplication to some extent and they aren’t excluded from voting on non-Scottish affairs.

There is so much argument between the Westminster parliament and local councils over funding, rate capping and the level of the central government grant that it might be better to get rid of the Westminster parliament altogether. It won’t happen of course because it is too powerful to get rid of itself.

Defence would still be a problem because most people wouldn’t want it under European control, so some form of joint defence committee formed from the district councils would be an answer. All other matters would be handed down to local level or up to European level.

Taxation is another issue that people wouldn’t want controlled at European level. Local authorities already have the ability to raise taxes and control health, education and other major issues so all taxes would be raised at local level, giving flexibility for the regions. There would be a levy by the European parliament for their funds.

We don’t have a federal system like the United States, but there the states have strong powers and varying laws and taxes quite successfully. We could do the same. Most people wouldn’t want taxation, VAT, education and health to be determined at European level, except possibly in regard to overall standards.

We increasingly see judgments in our courts disputed at various levels right up to the House of Lords then taken to the European Court as a last resort. This is undermining the authority of our courts especially when our laws and judgments are often found to be wrong, out of date or in conflict with European law.

It would have another effect of giving more choice. Presently if you don’t like the taxes or laws in the UK you have to move abroad to live and work in a very unfamiliar environment and a different language. If control was more in the hands of local councils you would not have to move far to experience different taxes and laws, possibly still being near enough to commute to your original job.

It seems that the influence of the European parliament and European courts will increase every year, so the conflicts with our UK parliament and courts will also increase. Something has to give.