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Posts Tagged ‘The European Union’

Whilst I could never understand the economic rationale behind setting up the Eurozone which was always a total nonsense to me, the political case was obvious for those who believed in a “United States of Europe”, another nonsense if ever there was one. But whilst I have no love for either, I certainly wish them no harm because the UK is outside the Eurozone and hopefully in due course we shall be outside of the EU too.

The Media is full of stories about the economic crisis in Greece which is in the Euro but in deep shit because of the way it ran its budget therefore the question is: “Will the richer Eurozone countries bail Greece out ? Is this the first test for the Euro and will the currency fail if they can’t or don’t do so ?” To be honest the real problem has nothing to do with this in any case in my opinion…

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Howard Jacobson wrote an interesting article in the Independent: “Civil liberties or civil protection – which is the more important?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/howard-jacobson/howard-jacobson-civil-liberties-or-civil-protection-ndash-which-is-the-more-important-1869544.html

The majority of people who mailed in were hostile to his stance but my own feeling was that neither ’side’ was approaching the problems sensibly either.

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Yesterday Bruce Anderson was having a bit of a rant about the Labour Party and whilst at times quite amusing, intended or not, it did lead to to several thoughts:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-from-blair-to-darling-labour-only-ever-acts-out-of-selfinterest-1839891.html

It was well written, contains many good points and it is true that Brown clinging on to power has and continues to damage this Nation. An Autumn Election should have been called, a decision made by the voters and we should all be starting to finally move forward again instead of being in Limbo whilst Britain Burns and necessary remedial actions are put off.

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Whilst “knocking” the Conservatives, Labour and LibDems and damning all politicians as total fools is understandable in some ways, is not the answer although it does highlight the real problem which is a lack of commercial enterprise in Britain.

Since when did becoming Prime Minister or being “In the Government” represent the apex of British Society ? Oh certainly in the minds of all politicians throughout the ages and especially as long before today, they pocketed back handers of one sort or another, they were the most important in the land but historically very few were. All political parties represent and always did, a specific sectional interest in society whether of property, trade or labour (working people).

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Today Dominic Lawson wrote an interesting and amusing article in the Independent called “Europe will always be a foreign land for the British”. It was interesting in that he was ‘observing’ a situation rather than promoting such a view but it is worth looking at for the comments that came in the majority of which were rather rancid and well wide of the topic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-europe-will-always-be-a-foreign-land-for-the-british-1826457.html

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With the usual hilarity that surrounds most things to do with EU Summits, over dinner and behind closed doors, the new EU President and High Representative (Foreign Minister), were chosen and announced to a waiting world… Rompuy and Aston…Who, what, do either clean sinks better than Dettol ?

Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy is the EU President which is quite funny because after the last Belgium General Election, no one could form a Government for months and months but I suppose they must have done so in the end to have a PM. The High Representative is a British Quango person called Baroness Ashton but the point is, nobody has heard of either of them and thereby hangs a tale….

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If politicians would only think of the Country first, their Parties second and themselves last of all, there would be very different outcomes to many things and in the case of Gordon Brown, we would have had an Autumn Election. However, it seems that their petty egos carry more weight that any other consideration.

Gordon Brown has shied away from any election contest that he could but this one is unavoidable unless he is removed from office by his own side or leaves Downing Street feet first. Just why he is clinging to power is unfathomable, a week may be a long time in politics but he has been so unlucky for these past two years, just what does he expect to happen that will rescue him ?

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With the War going on in Afghanistan, a British Government seemingly unable to make a case for our involvement in it. An American President unable to decide whether to piss or get off the pot with regard to the same, the distrust generated by the Lisbon Treaty and the general poor economic picture, there is shall we say, a certain lack of self confidence abroad in this Country.

One often comes across heated debates in the “Comments” sections of the Media about whether British “greatness” was wasted by Blair acting as Bush’s poodle over Iraq. The doom-sayers who believe that if we are not fully integrated into the EU, we “stand no chance…” of what I’m not sure but these people certainly lack the courage to even contemplate standing alone. However, it set my mind to thinking about just what makes a Country “Great” so, some thoughts.

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Today Bruce Anderson wrote a really interesting article in the Independent in which whilst touching upon David Cameron’s changed policy following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, took a slightly different view and partly through the prism of the Euro. It is a good piece of journalism and whilst anti-EU in tone offers a rational insight which could be debated on many levels, again, well worth a read whichever side of the debate you are on:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-the-eu-battle-isnt-over-for-cameron-1817278.html

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On the Indy comments section, one chap wrote in that because we are in recession and the EU are our “principle trading partners” plus we need additional EU “combat troops” to win in Afghanistan, that we should be nice to the EU which is a totally silly concept but he did end with a good quote: Voltaire on his death bed who said when asked to denounce the works of the devil ” This is no time to make enemies”.

The problem of course is that this is a NATO Operation and the support from France, Germany and many other EU countries, has been pretty poor, to say the least.

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