European Union

By Nigel Farage, originally posted in The Telegraph

The Dutch referendum shows how the internet is taking back power from our Europhile elites

Today's Dutch referendum on the EU's expansionist agreement with Ukraine really is the people's referendum.

GeenPeil, a project stemming from the popular Dutch blog GeenStijl, collected some 420,000 signed, verified, signatures triggering this referendum. It is an extraordinary achievement that highlights how western democracy is evolving.

As a part of a new EU plan aimed at reducing the number of refugees flowing into Europe, Greece has begun sending migrants back to Turkey.  Greek border agents put 135 migrants on a ferry back to Turkey, much to the anger of Turkish authorities. USAToday explains: Human rights groups have been highly critical of the plan, saying Turkey, which already hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees, can not adequately care for the migrants. “This is the first day of a very difficult time for refugee rights.

• Ties between Germany and Russia enter new chill (Reuters)
• Tax authorities begin probes into some people named in Panama Papers leak (Reuters)
• SEC investigates ex-JPMorgan debt traders (FT)
• Who Will Win Wisconsin? Here Are Six Credible Predictions (BBG)
• Victim in Wall St. Scheme Was a Classmate of Its Accused Architect (NYT)
• Makers took big price increases on widely used U.S. drugs (Reuters)
• Fed’s New Bank Critic Keeps Heat On (WSJ)
• Biggest Ever Saudi Overhaul Targets $100 Billion of Revenue (BBG)

One of the recurring concerns involving Europe's seemingly perpetual economic, financial and social crises, is that these have been largely  predetermined, "scripted" and deliberate acts.

This is something the former head of the Bank of England admitted one month ago when Mervyn King said that Europe's economic depression "is the result of "deliberate" policy choices made by EU elites.  It is also what AIG Banque strategist Bernard Connolly said back in 2008 when laying out "What Europe Wants"

Submitted by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

• Erdogan has boasted that he is proud of boldly blackmailing EU leaders into paying him protection money.

• Erdogan's threats were almost criminally sinister: "... the EU will be confronted with more than a dead boy on the shores of Turkey. There will be 10,000 or 15,000. How will you deal with that?"