Hitchens on Turkey & the E.U.

Clearly, I am against Turkey ever being made a member;

Here is what Hitchens thinks.

Turkey wants all the privileges of NATO and EU membership but also wishes to continue occupying Cyprus, denying Kurdish rights, and lying about the Armenian genocide. On top of this, it now desires to act as a proxy for Islamization and dares to waste the time of a defensive alliance in trying to censor the press of another member state!

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I must have bumped my head

Lately I've found myself agreeing with Kevin Meyers - this can't be good.

Today he's talking about just how incompetent our political leaders are (very)

The regulator who for 10 months failed to tell his minister about the financial horror story of Anglo Irish Bank, with nearly €90m missing from the books, was not sacked, but in due course retired, on full pension.

[snip]

In the middle of the greatest financial crisis in the State's history, our entire (and vastly overpaid) political class is still on holiday. We have thousands of unoccupied houses across the country, as part of a government-sponsored wheeze to avoid taxes.

The unfortunate solution as Mr. Meyers sees it (and I can almost agree) is to throw our lot in entirely with Europe and hope than some Brussels Satrap can do a better job than our own lot have done.

I don't know if I can bring myself to vote 'yes' next time out, I might abstain or spoil my vote but I think it's pretty clear that the Irish system has failed after a mere 80 years ..

So roll on Lisbon! Roll on rule from Brussels! Yes, I know that our political establishment want it also, but what logic can you expect from them? Hasten the day when a gauleiter or apparatchik of the EU administers our affairs, for we clearly are not capable of doing so ourselves.

On a 2nd Lisbon Referendum

IMAGINE IF the Government lost a general election but refused to concede defeat. Imagine if they said that while respecting the outcome, they believed that the electorate failed to understand the issues, were misled by opposition parties and manipulated by the media. Imagine if they decided to re-run the election, threatening international isolation and economic collapse if the electorate refused to change their mind.

(sounds like Zimbabwe to me)

The above quote is from Mary Lou McDonald in todays Irish Times.

Compare and contrast this simple statement to the blatter offered by Dick Roche (and to be fair, almost everyone else in "offical" Ireland).

the fact of the matter is, your vote means nothing.

Guns, Germs & Steel, & Europe

I read Guns, Germs and Steel over the summer and found it very interesting and, as we're facing into another Lisbon vote, I'm reminded again of one of Diamonds theories as to why Europe rose to dominance in the past few hundred years after centuries in the Dark Ages;

Diamond also touches very briefly on why the dominant powers of the last 500 years have been West European rather than East Asian (especially China). The Asian areas in which major civilizations arose had geographical features conducive to the formation of large, stable, isolated empires which faced no external pressure to correct policies that led to stagnation. On the other hand Europe's many natural barriers divided it into competing nation-states and this competition forced the European nations to encourage innovation and avoid technological stagnation.^[1]

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Hurray For Ireland!

We get to vote for the Lisbon treaty again!!

While the other sucker countries of the E.U. didn't get to vote at all, Ireland shows everybody whose boss by getting to vote twice!

In olden times democracy's used to vote on things once, or for elections, once every few years but not any more!

Now, thanks to the new improved "E.U. Democracy 2.0" (patent pending) most people don't even need to vote but if, due to pesky constitutional requirements, this can't be avoided the question can be put again and again, each time with even more terrifying predictions of calamity, until the correct result is obtained!

The new "E.U. Democracy 2.0" comes packed with features;
a) A compliant press
b) Scowling E.U. bureaucrats
c) Denunciation pack filled with zingers to put those troublesome 'loons' in their place
d) The 'Vague Assurances' quote card set and
e) The "this is real democracy in action" Mad Libs prep.

Also included are 100's of pages of an unintelligible treaty that no one really understands.

So what are we waiting for?
Let's get voting.
Don't worry about the result, we can always be asked again...

I'm Glad someone else is saying it

The Sub-Committee on Ireland's Future in the EU has been told that its sole objective was to attempt to overthrow the democratic wishes of the majority of the people who voted No to the Lisbon Treaty.

Richard Greene of the group COIR, which advocated a NO vote in the Lisbon referendum, told the committee that this objective was a denial of democracy and amounted to an act of treason.

Committee chairman Senator Paschal Donoghoe said it was an outrageous allegation and that he had never seen such a disgraceful performance from any group before it.

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Blinded by the hypocrisy

The visiting Czech president met with (anti Lisbon campaigner) Declan Ganley the other day and expressed some reservations overt the future direction of Europe and the EU's reaction to Ireland no vote.

THE PRESIDENT of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has warned of a shift towards "supranationalism" in Europe which he says is supressing freedom and democracy.

Predicable this has been met with howls of indignation and hysteria by 'Official' Ireland Too bad they kept their mouths shut when we where being threatened and mocked by our so called "friends in Europe".

The joys of living with such mediocre leaders and politicians just never seems to end ...

More Lisbon Treaty Threats

From todays Irish Independant;

This from a certain Ms Catherine Day:

She told a Dail committee yesterday that when Irish representatives at meetings try to voice concerns on issues other than Lisbon, the mood among other delegates is that "the Irish are being difficult" again.

This has led to the Irish having to "think twice" before raising issues, she added.

Ms Day said that the 'No' vote has meant that, for the time being, other member states tend to view Ireland only through the prism of the Lisbon Treaty.

"But I do not believe that Ireland's image has been tarnished irrevocably, provided we are able to ratify in a reasonable time period.

Those naughty Irish and their "democracy". we must crush them!

Anyway a quite search on the inter-web for Catherine Day brings up this page, in which it says;

Ms. Day was part of a reshuffle among Commission officials in favour of liberal economic reformers

and we all know how well "liberal economic reforms" are working out right now. I wouldn't trust these people to drop if pushed over a cliff ...

Disaster Capilatism in action

Naomi Klein Shock Docturine is being put to good use by all and sundry to get us to vote for Lisbon (again).

Is it just me or would the entire Irish banking system have gone under if Lisbon had been in place?

The two E.U. countries (that I can see) to react quickest to the banking crisis where Ireland & England, I don't see how having to consult with Germany, France, Spain, Italy et al would have sped the process up or lead to the correct/necessary decision.

Protectionism makes you rich

I don't know if Peter Mandelson is the most evil person in Europe, but I bet he's in the top 5.

Neoliberal economists claim rich countries got that way by removing their barriers to trade. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Ha-Joon Chang shows in his book Kicking Away the Ladder, Britain discovered its enthusiasm for free trade only after it had achieved economic dominance. The industrial revolution was built on protectionism: in 1699, for example, we banned the import of Irish woollens; in 1700 we banned cotton cloth from India. To protect our infant industries, we imposed ferocious tariffs (trade taxes) on almost all manufactured goods.

By 1816 the US had imposed a 35% tax on most imported manufactures, which rose to 50% in 1832. Between 1864 and 1913 it was the most heavily protected nation on earth, and the fastest-growing. It wasn't until after the second world war, when it had already become top dog, that it dropped most of its tariffs. The same strategy was followed by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and almost every other country that is rich today. Within the ACP nations, the great success story of the past 30 years is the country whose protectionism has been fiercest: during the 1980s and 1990s, Mauritius imposed import tariffs of up to 80%. Protectionism, which can be easily exploited by corrupt elites, does not always deliver wealth; but development is much harder without it.

The first goal of any society is to provide enough food and labour to sustain itself, under no circumstances should this be "outsourced", handed over to a third party or bartered away.

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The E.U. Gravy Train

It's laughable that we should be asked to "trust" these fuckers! Transparency? Freedom of the Press? Democracy? Only words to sooth the gullible masses.



And please, no comments on how Lisbon would "fix" this kind of abuse. Lisbon is not required to stop blatant greed, and besides, if they don't fix them now they are not going to do it when they have more power.

tip to JohnnyK and ocaoimh for the link

Hurray For The Presenant of Poland

there are still a few democrats left, even more stinging as this guy supported the treaty;

Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said he will not sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

"For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless," Mr Kaczynski was quoted as saying in the online version of the daily Dziennik.

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People Don't Know Whats Good For 'Em

here's something that I thought was a real eye popper but which only received a small column in Saturdays Irish times;

AUSTRIA: AUSTRIA'S SOCIAL Democratic chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, has sparked a government crisis by promising a Lisbon Treaty referendum if changes are made to the document ahead of a second Irish vote.

Foreign minister Ursula Plassnik, from the conservative People's Party (ÖVP), denounced the move as "crazy" and did not rule out bringing down the coalition with the "erratic" Social Democrats (SPÖ). (my bold)

A minister in a western democracy can call the notion of a referendum "Crazy" and no one minds??? Clearly even the politicians know, but choose to ignore, the fact that most people do not want more and more power devolved from their own governments to Brussels.

When NO means Maybe

In the almost two weeks since the Lisbon No vote I've been meaning to write about my own reaction to the result as well as the (almost universal) hysterical response from 'Official Ireland' but I just never got around to it. There seems to be no end of things I could say about it as every time its mentioned on radio or TV I think "I must post about that" and so, two weeks later, here goes.

The first thing I'd like to say is that most of my peers voted YES and where appalled by my NO vote. As a matter of fact I went to the pub after work on the day off the result (Friday 13th) and ended up in a wide ranging and lengthy discussion on the treaty. "Europe has been good for us so far, so why not trust them again? (or indeed, why mistrust them now?)" was the main argument and I have to say, it's a pretty good one. I didn't and don't think it is, in itself, a good reason for voting YES but I can appreciate how it might be seen as one.

The reason I voted NO was the lack of democracy in the E.U. (as I posted earlier) but this was mainly met with curious stares and shoulder shrugs. The fact that we where voting for something twice rejected just wasn't important. I suggested that we will be made to vote again but this time the threats will be more overt and the treaty will be passed - everyone agreed. Not democratic, I'd say. More shrugs and stares.

Since that night politician's and pundits have been qualifying the NO. "It wasn't really a NO", "The people didn't understand", "It wasn't a large NO", "It was an unfair NO", "we can't decide for all Europe", "The NO wasn't democratic, we are less that 1% of the population of Europe, it's wrong to hold them back", "The NO side are right-wingers and liars", "we shouldn't let the people decide important issues like this" ... I could go on.

Our NO vote has not been respected and hardly anyone cares.
I'm glad I voted NO, it actually meant something this time but its looking likely that it was last meaning vote any European citizen will get.

Why Politicians Hate Democracy!

Because we vote the wrong way!

Only 1% of the population of the E.U. got to vote on the most important treaty to date - they said "NO". I have to say, I'm a little surprised. The fear mongering and threats from the yes side where coming think and fast in recent weeks and I thought many would be cowed. It's sometimes nice to be wrong. Now the question is will Europe make good on the threats and punish us in some way?

There is a major schism in Europe between the "leaders" and the citizens, to my mind most people want to remain Irish, English, French, Spanish whatever, they don't want to surrender their future and identities to the vague United States of Europe that so many elites seek. the E.U. started as a trade and cooperation block, thats how it should remain.

Lisbon Result

The E.U.

Wheres Sir Humphrey when you need him?