We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
|
Blowing raspberries at the EU An update following my article on the Bruges Group meeting on Thursday (right before our previous hosting server went nuclear).
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that opinion polls show that the UK public both opposes the single currency and a proposed new EU Constitution.
Okay, okay, I hear folk say, opinion polls are not everything, and the ability of the British political class to stiff the public they are supposed to represent is a matter of record. Even so, Prime Minister Tony Blair is famed for his attention to the focus group. And if public opinion can be galvanised, he may stay his hand at wiping out what remains of Britain as an independent, self-governing nation.
Well, I always was the optimistic type of guy.
|
Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
|
Eh. I wouldn’t get too excited. Even if you get a referendum, they’ll only do what they did to Ireland: keep calling another referendum until they get the result they want.
With any luck, something will happen like…the German economy will fall on its face, removing any desire to hop aboard with them.
Hey, looks like I’m an optimist, too!
In T Blair’s case, the focus group is infinitely junior to the ambition. Blair wants to be the unelected president of an un-country, which is rather a vacuous ambition, but then, no one has ever accused the British prime minister of depth. He has no vision other than the photo ops of himself running jauntily down the steps of Europe’s very own Air Force One and, with winsome informality, acknowledging the salutes of the Ruritanian Guard. During the war, Blair worked tirelessly in his own cause, drawing attention to his “leadership” qualities before the Old Europe he will be crawling back to within the next couple of weeks. But Old Europe, one suspects, is still in high octane seethe mode. New Europe, including the Vilnius 10, aren’t of the mindset to create a new level of political masters – including unelected “presidents” being thrust unaccountably into pole position at the top table.
The birthright of 59m freeborn Britons is at stake and last time I checked we had not agreed that our 2,000 years of history be the ante for the throw of the dice of some fleeting politician’s ambition.
This “European” “constitution” has to be what is technically known as “trashed”. The day-before-yesterday’s man Valery Giscard should have tried to straighten France out of communist mode 20 years or so ago before moving on to untangle, yet unify (oh, those nuanced paradoxes!), the vast landmass of Europe.
By the way, who appointed him Thomas Jefferson?
The European Convention is open to more divisions between the smaller and the larger countries than the tabloid press publicises. There is a possibility that they will just not be able to agree amongst themselves the structure of a new Europe. Such a possibility is slim.
Blair and his cohorts may argue against a referendum but they do oppose QMV on fiscal issues. This is an area where they form a distinct minority within the Convention and it is clear that it will form a core competence for the new state.
If tax is decided by QMV, it blows the arguments that the Constitution is tidying up existing treaties out of the water. Blair is spinning this but he may well be outpaced by events on the ground. A Constitution that removes Britain’s fiscal independence will split Labour top to toe and pitch a small minority against both Brownites and the old left.
It’s too soon to see what the results will be, but the more centralised the Constitution is, the harder it will be for Blair to spin.
Philip – That won’t stop him muddying the waters by trying.
I returned last night to my corner of Eastern Europe from Austria with my week’s-worth clutch of faceless euros. The first thing that greeted me at the shopping-mall newsagents was a copy of the Sun, with headlines reading “1588 We saw off the Spanish, 1805 We saw off the French, 1945 Wes saw off the Germans” and then something along the lines of “Blair sells Britain out to Europe” above a picture of him with his increasingly wild-looking staring eyes, poor man.
What’s going on? Did anyone read this Sun issue?
No, Wes didn’t see off the Germans.
Perhaps I’m out of touch, but all I could imagine for a few fuzzy moments was British people with saws sawing bits off Spanish, French, and German people….
You’re doing better than I am, mark. I went completely off the rails with this one, obsessing on the expression “blowing raspberries” in the title.
Having a hard time dealing with it in an English accent. It sounds Bugs Bunnyesque to me. It works better in his idiom. Somehow “rahzbrees” doesn’t capture the spirit of the thing.
Only, I’m utterly wrong. Webster informs me its origin is cockney rhyming slang (“raspberry tart”).
Along the way, I discovered:
So…G’nite honey! BRRrrrrapppbpb!