Graham Watson (the entirely insufferable Lib Dem MEP) is to give a speech with the following title.
Four years after the Constitution, one year after the Lisbon treaty: Is the EU being held hostage by its citizens?
There really are times when you just can’t make things up, improve upon the humour that the natural world offers.
I’m not sure that I wholly agree with it but I do think there’s at least some truth to it. It’s also a very elegant argument. Why is it that, given that Fascism and Communism were roughly equally foul murderous systems, we tend to forgive former communists more easily than we do former fascists?
This of course has echoes with our own attitudes, we’re far more likely to welcome a former leftie activist (one or other of the flavours of Revolutionary Communism for example) into UKIP than we are a former BNP one.
This is a matter of psychology, not philosophy. In most Western countries, people look upon Communists with bemused disdain; Nazis, in contrast, they view with horrified disgust. Since the stigma against Communists is far weaker, the Communists manage to attract some vaguely normal adherents… or at least they used to. In contrast, the stigma against Nazis is so intense that you have to be virtually psychopathic to join. Once you send that signal, it’s almost impossible to trust anything you say - even if you claim that you’re no longer a Nazi.
As I say, I’m not sure I buy this 100% but it certainly is an interesting way of looking at it.
Oh, very good, very good indeed.
You do want to go over and have a look at what the Anoneumouse has worked out.
In order to meet the conditions for joining the single European currency, all citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must be made aware that the phrase ‘Spending a Penny’ is not to be used……….
This is a really silly idea actually.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research argues for an eye-catching five-point cut in Vat, taking the rate from 17.5% to 12.5% for a period of two years. It makes a lot of sense, helping families up and down the social scale – a bigger proportion of the income of the lower paid goes on Vat – and providing small firms with a fillip. It would certainly be noticed, unlike fiddling with tax credits.
Not silly in an economic sense, rather, silly in a political sense. Because our provincial government in Westminster doesn’t in fact have the power to cut VAT to such a level. We are bound, by our real government in Brussels, to keep the main VAT rate at or above 15%.
Just another example of how we no longer have the power to do as we wish in our own country.
Lord Mandelson did discuss European Union trade issues with Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, despite his denials that they had ever talked about the subject.
I do wonder how far this is going to go. Are we going to end up with a third resignation?
I think this is a lovely little story. So Sarkozy and Barroso are giving their press conference after the latest little meeting where they’ve decided to save the world by abolishing freedom.
Yet none of this seemed to have dismayed Mr Sarkozy one bit, as he boasted of how his proposals had received unanimous backing from the 27 member nations of the union at the official summit press conference. Then came the turn of José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, to speak. And Mr Barroso, often rather unfairly portrayed as a poodle to important leaders like the French president, managed to disconcert Mr Sarkozy in an instant. His method: he spoke English.
It was a very odd moment. Mr Barroso speaks many languages: including his native Portuguese, excellent French and English, and a magnificently mangled form of Spanish. But the French presidency of the EU has gone out of its way to stress the French language, in a rather vain attempt to stem the tide of English as the near-automatic working language of the EU institutions. Mr Barroso normally speaks French in such circumstances. But this time, he began by announcing that he would speak English “for the sake of linguistic diversity, and for the protection of minority languages”. Why not speak Portuguese, if you want to defend minority languages, snapped Mr Sarkozy, before muttering audibly that French was a minority language nowadays.
To the French president’s visible irritation, Mr Barroso went on in English, and on. Mr Sarkozy’s English is pretty ropey, but pride (presumably) did not allow him to put in his earpiece to hear a simultaneous translation of what his fellow president was saying.
Two possible reasons suggest themselves for Mr Barroso’s linguistic rebellion. He was getting his own back after one too many instances of bullying by Mr Sarkozy. Or, knowing that the summit might feature on international news channels, guessed that if he spoke English, he stood a good chance of being shown on screen, instead of Mr Sarkozy, whose French remarks would need to be dubbed.
Rather “tee hee” no?
Anyone thought of sending Jamie Oliver a membership pack yet?
Same woman MP: But EU commissioners are meeting in a weeks time to look at this again, so what is your message to them?
Jamie: I just have no faith that anything good will come out of it. It’ll take ages, it’ll be disappointing and it’ll be unclear, and there’ll be loopholes. I wish it [the EU] never existed. And labelling is a perfect example - Britain cannot decide what its minimum standards for labelling and clarity are, because it has to go through the EU, and the EU has a lot more to worry about than just Great Britain, and frankly I only care about Great Britain. I can take you to a supermarket now and it will say sourced in the UK, and on the back it will say ‘From Denmark’; how dare they!…It’s a big old subject. Don’t get me off on one or I will go on a tangent.
On this thing about the British opt out from the Working Time Directive. This is very much the point.
To which I say, what about the principle that if I want to work my bollocks off for 60- hours a week, why can’t I and what right does a load of MEPs that have no link with my country have in telling me I can’t?
Quite.
This is interesting…about that near entire ward branch of Conservatives who moved over to UKIP.
NORTH Westminster Conservatives are in disarray after their entire Harrow Road branch jumped ship to the UK Independence Party amid discrimination claims.
Former refugee Jasna Badzak, the chairman of the Harrow Road ward association, claimed she was told by a party agent that she could not progress in the Conservative Party because of her background.
The accusation is strongly rejected by the Westminster North Conservative Association (NWCA), which has carried out an internal investigation.
Chairwoman Amanda Sayers said: “Any indication that this association takes decisions on the basis of ethnicity or background will be taken extremely seriously.”
But despite the assurances, Ms Badzak resigned on Friday and was immediately followed by Susan Jacobs, the party’s vice chairman, membership secretary Drgomir Mikulic and the secretary Luli Beqiri.
They are each adopting the same roles for the newly formed Westminster North Association of the UK Independence Party.
Ms Badzak, who has a business Masters degree at the University of Westminster, said: “I have been told by the party agent that people like me can forget about progressing in the Conservative Party. This is not just locally, but nationally.
“It is just jobs for the boys. Unfortunately, I did not go to private school. I did not go to Oxbridge. Well I have said no thank you – this is not the way to do things. People should be judged on their ability.”
Read the rest, as they say.