"How democratic can supra national politics ever be? The European Parliament cannot legitimately be seen as representing sovereign peoples so long as the vote of a Maltese citizen is worth twelve times that of a Frenchman. A Parliament like the one in Strasburg and Brussels cannot hold the Commission at all accountable for the simple reason that it cannot exert hardly any control over it."
Thomas Darnstaedt, Der Spiegel
12 comments:
Down with the EU.
Although the very fact that the institution exists continues to give us quotes like "Mrs. Kinnock is a political prostitute" from Nasty/Nazi then I say keep it - now that's what I call value for money!!!
You do realise that these are some of the very things the Lisbon Treaty seeks to address, don't you?
It's strange. I can't find anything in this blog today about the main Tory EU story, even though there are a lot of references to Europe. This is the story carried on many websites that the leader of David Cameron's new grouping of far right extremists, er, highly moderate and completely reasonable Euro-Tories opposed to the EU is a queer-basher.
Yes, Michal Kaminski, leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists, likes to use derogatory terms for gay people.
Strange that Iain has not seen fit to comment on this rather important story.
It reveals yet more evidence of the true views of today's Tory Party - well over on the headbanger far right, a comfortable place for the gay-bashers, racists and fellow travellers who haven't quite gotten around to joining a Nazi grouping.
if the BBC can spend 20 million pounds flying back its chief from holiday all because of that tw#t Ross (!!!!!!) then MPs are certainly entitled to a holiday.
The last sentence of the quote says it all...The Parliament cannot hold the Commission to account....Now perhaps one or two of the Euro enthusiasts on here might care to explain why we should remain in this corrupt, undemocratic and increasingly expensive fascist state....
I wont hold me breath
Supra national politics are not supposed to be democratic, Iain. That's the whole point.
The issue is the same as exercised the barons when the forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in AD 1215, which included the 'no foreign princes' clause. In this, the barons recognised that if the King got together with the other kings of Europe he wouldn't need to be a good ruler because no matter how bad he got no other country would invade him and he could simply conspire against the people, raise as much tax and rule as brutally as he liked and no army would overthrow him. By forcing the king to seek their support and theirs alone they ensured that he would rule justly and not be greedy with taxes.
The EU is yet another attempt by the decendants overthrowers of the Roman Republic to subvert this principle.
I know its off topic and nerd territory but isnt it good that the Government has published the MODs accounts just as the House rises and noone takes a clsoe look at them.
Here are a few snippets:
1 staff are allowed to enter their own expense claims, allowances, specialist pay details, etc into the pay computer. there are then no checks before they are paid
3 out of £1.08 bn in allowances paid over £204m was overpaid ie 20%!!!!!!!!
4 in every area overpayments exceeded underpayment by a factor of about x3
5 this has been identified to MOD for several years and they have done nothing to fix it
6 the MODs records were so bad that NAO could not audit the money taken off soldiers for £88m accommodatioon / food etc. Noone has a clue if its right
7 these has been some press coverage of £155m of missing radios. The total amount of equipment that cannot be accounted for is valued at over £1 billion!!!
8 the MOD's warehouses and stock control systems are shambolic. They have no idea what stores they have or where they are. No wonder soldiers in the line cannot get kit
9 there are particular problems with Radios where as a result of the audit the MOD suddenly found an extra 5000 Bowman radios it didnt know it had. Dont you just love it when you put on a pair of trouses and there's a £5 in the pocket!
So we cannot afford helicopters or new armour or proper equipment for our troops when MOD is haemorraging money on this scale and has been for years and the figures show that year on year its getting worse.
Despairing Liberal -- who do I believe, you saying Conservatives are a bunch of screaming loony homophobes or anyone who writes Comment for the Daily Mail who think the tories are a bunch of closet pinko liberals?
Mr Kaminsky himself says - " “I’m opposing the so-called marriages for the homosexual couples but I have a deep respect for the people with a homosexual way of life. You can never find anything I said in my past against the homosexuals. I think that its almost impossible to find it because I’m a democrat. I’m a convinced Conservative and I have a liberal approach to the way of life the people are choosing.” "
For the record I am opposed to homosexual 'marriage'. I have no problem with a civil agreement for tax and inheritance purposes for gay people but I see no reason why two spinster sisters should remain discriminated against by the tax system.
Trevorsden, you are letting the facts get in the way of a good anti Tory smear.
Cynic raises an excellent list of points. The MoD is riddled with waste and overspending and has been for decades - largely because they could always hide behind national security secrecy.
I vividly recall how during the worst of the Falklands crisis it came out that civil servant bosses there had ordered new deluxe carpets for the executive areas of the MoD, at a substantial cost. Shows the priorities of those senior civil servants.
I think if the Tories truly announced in a believable way that they were going to get to grips with government waste, that would be a very good thing. At present they are not addressing the real issues of huge overspends on consultants and contractors, but they have at least promised a review of defence expenditure, which to be fair is needed.
Trevorsden - I think Hitchens would report that Cameron is a dangerous communist if he announced he was going to shoot all trade unionists. The Daily MailFraud left the path of reason long ago.
In all seriousness, I don't truly argue that the new Cameron Euro-alliance is entirely staffed with former SS officers, but there are a lot of dodgies in there and the whole thing smells of pathetic. I do feel it's a shame for Britain that one of the principal political parties has effectively dropped out of mainstream Euro-politics. I suspect they will gradually find a way back in once elected - this is mainly for public digestion as an anti-Ukip measure. Watch for Hague being sidelined after a Cameron victory as well.
Of course, in elections to the United States Senate, a vote in Wyoming is worth 69 times as much as a vote in California. So it is hardly as if the overrepresentation of Malta is a unique and self-evidently undemocratic problem.
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