Interesting blog piece, looking at...
THE REALITY of the facts and issues from a neutral point of view...
I know, how unwelcome is that, eh?
I await comments with interest.
It's the democratic deficit for me. I don't want my already meagre vote diluted 10 to 1 with unspecified more to come. He admits that the parliament was as reluctant afterthought and looking at that MEP trying to get the details of TIPP just about sums up the contempt to which it is held. If we leave, we wont be the last.
Many Scots, Welsh and Nor'n Irish could quite easily say that about the UK, of course.
Which of course they're perfectly entitled to do so and the reason the number of nations has greatly increased over the decades. Gorbachev said 'The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.'
Not to mention the Cornish, maybe Norfolk and Suffolk..... Where does it end? IMHO Nationalism == Stupidity.
It's very widely quoted, but I've never actually managed to find anything approaching an authoritative source for it. Could you oblige?
Probably not, if you've already done some extensive research. However I still believe the EU is a retrograde step in terms of democratic representation, whether he said it or not !
This seems to point to the fact that he didn't want to break up the SU but democratise it, whatever that means. Who knows ? I just feel that the further away the seat of government, the less influence the voter and we have no idea how big the EU will become.
You're a fan of Gorbachev, then?
Except that we do - because every single member country has to approve every single applicant, on top of them meeting all the accession criteria.
There's only credible current applicant. 30 years after first applying, Turkey is no nearer - if anything it's further - to meeting those and, even then, there ain't no way that Cyprus and Greece would do anything but veto them. Whilst laughing.
The other four current applicants - Montenegro, FYROM, Serbia, Albania - are MILES away from anything approaching the criteria, and they'd all be blackballed hands-down anyway. Greece have it in for FYROM, Croatia has it in for Serbia, Montenegro is as corrupt as they come, and... well, Albania. I loved the month I spent in Albania, but... Really...?
IMHO someone who says without qualification that Nationalism == Stupidity, demonstrates real stupidity.
>
Translated as hate your fellow man but love your country.
Not particularly and there appears to be some doubt that he actually said that but he certainly had experience of a centralised communist system and apparently thought it should be democracised !! That's my beef with the EU, that it moves government away from the people. The rest of it can be sorted out by agreement as it always has been. I will not be blackmailed/bullied out of our hard-won representation.
You are, of course, assuming that the EU is some kind of "centralised communist system".
It isn't, and I don't see it as any kind of significant weakening of democracy.
We vote for our MP. We vote for our MEP. No real difference. Sure, it's a bigger constituency, but local councillors have an even smaller constituency, and arguably have much more effect on our day-to-day lives - but nobody even bothers to go and vote for them.
TBH, my biggest beef with the European Parliament is the way our MEPs are elected - we simply don't have the constituency link that we do with MPs or councillors. Yet many people want that for Westminster, too, and the various assemblies have them.
I suspect it is bordering on communist, in the sense that I believe only the appointed commissioners can decide what business will be put to the parliament. That surely places all the power within a very select band
You're right in saying that there is little or no connection between an MEP and their constituents, most wouldn't even have clue who they were. They have little or no interest in an EU government and that's why the bureaucrats like it so much.
You're right too, that our present local system is dire in representing the real feelings of the electorate and there actually needs to be far more referenda, something diametrically opposed to the present trend. One thing for example that I'd like to see is a ballot on the full-face burka. I think it's ridiculous from both an equality and security point of view, that anyone is allowed to conceal their identity but that's probably straying from the point but I guess I just feel things are going in the wrong direction !
Whereas at Westminster, MPs can place private member's bills. Which have SUCH a high rate of making it into law, right...?
Anyway, I don't think "communist" means what you seem to think it means.
I didn't say that.
I certainly didn't say that.
Nationally, by the end of next month, we'll have had two referenda in the last five years. Before that, none for 35 years. Before that, umm, never.
Here we go...
So single out just one particular form of full-face covering? (and get the name of that wrong, but...)
You ever looked at the opinion of motorcyclists on retailers requesting them - with no legal force - to remove their helmets in petrol stations, even banks and supermarkets? They tend not to like it...
Odd. Most people actually think there's too much cctv surveillance...
But, as you say, let's have one argument at a time...
We can agree to differ but I must pick this up.
I am seriously not anti anyone but do think that is ridiculous, if there's to be any chance of social cohesion but of course it's so easy to throw the anti this or that card at anyone who objects.
It's not a question of whether THEY like it or not, it's what's best for everyone. That's the whole point.
Yes but most people don't think it would be reasonable to go around with a bag on your head !
;-)
That's right. If one of the larger parties wants to keep Joe Soap as one of their MEPs, it's quite hard to prevent them. A bit like the commissioners, really.
This really stems from a difference in the way politicians are viewed in these PR countries. There is a political class. You join it and then you're set for life. With PR the public can't dump you. The political class business is bad enough here, but a whole lot worse elsewhere.
It is.
Huge difference.
We can vote out the legislature fir Introducing law in the UK., WE cant vote out the amenders (Lords)
The reverse holds for the EU
We vote for what amounts to the Lords, but the commons is filled with career bureaucrats we cannot sack.
Like most 'inners', you have almost no idea about how the EU works.
Not surprising. The USSR was (and still is) riddled with corruption. Nothing like a true communist state. Just a mockery of the idea.
It's rather more of the people than the current UK government would wish. Or rather many in it.
I'm still waiting for some concrete examples of how it removes our 'hard won respresentation'. Which I take it is just another version of 'sovereignty'.
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