EU places illicit ads for itself

Christopher Booker's Notebook
Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 02nd October 2005

The European Parliament is, as it likes to insist, "a rules-based organisation", so its office in London was quick to comply last week when, following a complaint by the UK Independence Party, it was told to haul down the large EU flag hanging outside its Westminster premises as being in breach of planning law.

This followed a similar retreat by Wear Valley council in the North-East, which had been proudly flying the blue and gold "ring of stars" outside its offices, to honour the fact that its leader, Olive Brown, is a member of the EU's Committee of the Regions.

On the advice of the North-East campaigner Neil Herron, a local resident, Jim Tague, pointed out to the council that, under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulation 1992, the EU flag is classified as "an outdoor advertisement" and requires planning permission. Wear Valley was thus forced to remove the flag. The parliament has now followed suit.

If similar actions are taken across the country, doubtless few will be more upset than Kenneth Clarke who, despite his efforts to downplay the "Europe" issue, is still a vice-president of the European Movement. This Brussels-funded lobby group urges the flying of the EU flag as widely as possible because, as it claims on its website, it "advertises the Union as a benevolent, familiar aspect of our country's identity".

Alas, the website does not advise Europhiles that this may be illegal, and that to display their "advertisement" without planning permission is viewed in planning law as no different from putting up a hoarding for Coca-Cola.