So we are going to given a referendum on whether or not to sign up to the EU Constitution. Or not. Or maybe. Possibly. Not yet, but soon. In principle. In theory. For certain, provided conditions are right.
Lord knows! Like everything else concerning Britain’s relationship with Brussels this whole referendum issue is buried deep within a fog of obfuscation, misinformation, confusion and misdirection.
What is certain is that the government/media lie-factory is being cranked up to over-production mode forging weapon-grade children for deployment in the propoganda war ahead [“I think we should be a part of Europe so that we can all live together in peace”, said Heidi, aged 10. Yes, it really will be that fatuous and buttock-clenchingly embarrassing.]
So now is to the time for the forces of truth and light to step up to the crease, ready to hit the opposition for six. Among the fearless volunteers are the team behind a new blog called, simply, EU Referendum.
These guys have got the real skinny on the fetid labrynth of EU politics and they tell it exactly like it is. Pay them lots of visits to read, learn, grow and become a better human being.
Well, I haven’t visited the site yet, but in my determination to become a better human being and an absolutely all round good European oeuf, I sat through a TV talk show last night that had me gagging for breath and my brain going round and round and round like a little hampster on a wheel and with the same level of despair of ever getting anywhere.
A French European minister of something or other was being interviewed. I didn’t get the name. She was blonde, with a short, stylish in a no-nonsense way, hairdo, the mandatory open-necked white shirt and dark jacket. Subtle make-up. Fiftyish. Looked as though she’d had some eye work done (given her previous photographs). A Euro-clone, vaguely along the lines of Swedish assassinee Anna Lindh but without the glasses.
She was serious. She was calm. She was rational. She explained things, and explained and explained, certain she was assured grateful attention from those to whom she was revealing the great truths of the EU. She spoke with turgid intensity for what seemed like hours, never at a loss for words, or breath. Questions were batted away like flies. This gal knew it all. She lectured, she hectored (if you can hector without feeling), she dismissed, all in the same vapid monotone.
In other words, the very model of an EU politician who sees no reason to charm or seek to persuade because SHE AND THE ELDERS KNOW BEST.
These people are what happens when you abandon democracy.
And in any event, David, there’s trouble up at t ‘lie factory because giving peace a chance was never a pressing need for the Brits. We were the victors. How obfuscating, as you rightly said, that they somehow managed to twist this up at t’ lie factory to mean that unless the victor allowed its own interests to be subsumed in the furtherance of the fortunes of the losers, Germany and France would have no choice but to go to war again.
No matter the opinion of informed tots everywhere, Britain was perfectly able to live in peace without tutelage from Germany and France.
Forgive an ignorant Yank, but does anyone over there even remember why they thought this EU stuff was a good idea? I mean, a currency union and centralized fiscal policy would be bad enough, given the diverse economies of Europe. Putting the “planners” (in Hayek’s sense) in charge without an effective check on them is a terrifying idea. No wonder they won’t let you have guns.
“The sun never sets on the Belgian Empire, unless it has obtained the proper permit.”
Mitch, it crept in on little cat feet 50/60 years ago in reaction to WWII, which they all lost except the Brits (thanks, god knows, to the Americans). It became the most important project in the universe: Germany and France must never go to war again! So all other countries within the vicinity had to be moulded to this aim.
It seems that no one said to either Germany or France, “If you do this again, we’ll beat the living shit out of you and this time give you no money for reconstruction or your presidential palaces. Your choice.”
They needed this leaden edifice, which illuminates everything we don’t want to know about tranzis.
The EU was also encouraged by the US right from the start, which saw it as a useful obstacle to the spread of Communism from eastern Europe to the west. In fact, the US exerted some pressure on the UK to join up throughout the 1960s, principally for this reason. During the Cold War, America was one of the EU’s stronger supporters, but since the demise of European Communism, has become steadily less interested – the strategic logic is no longer valid.
Just out: Blind Blunkett is to exact, as a “civil penalty” £2,500 (around $4,000) from anyone who is caught having failed to register for his innocent ID cards. David Blunkett said not making registering a criminal issue would avoid “clever people” becoming martyrs.
So there you go! No charges and no trial by jury! Just a “civil” penalty! For not registering for their fascist ID. Why is it so important to them?
How about these slogans:
Read it ALL — or vote no!
Ask your friends if ANY of them have read the whole thing?
If it’s not worth reading — it’s not worth supporting.
Well, it seems to be an idea whose time has come — and gone. A customs union makes good sense, enlarging and simplifying trade. Perhaps they should consider scaling back the project to something that would actually be helpful.
Besides, at this juncture, France and Germany going at each other would be like a boxing match between nursing home residents. Why solve a problem that has ceased to exist?
I think that western civilization will owe the British yet another debt of gratitude for stopping the European superstate from coming into being. That is just what a referendum will do. Good for you. Doesn’t one verse of your national anthem go “Confound their politics, and all their knavish tricks”?
Any “constitution” that runs over 5 pages should be rejected out of hand.