There was never the slightest chance that David Cameron will achieve any significant “renegotiation” of Britain’s EU membership terms. This fictitious “renegotiation” is the fig-leaf with which Cameron has sought to appease euro-sceptics, promising an in-out referendum once the non-existent “renegotiation” is completed.
When a non-existent process can be deemed complete is an interesting question.
On Cameron’s side, it has only ever been a fig-leaf to buy time, though I do not entirely discount Britain’s extraordinary capacity to delude itself about its ability to “punch above its weight” diplomatically. The book of modern British diplomatic triumphs would be a slim volume indeed.
But the Emperor has made the mistake of pointing to his dangling naked penis. Cameron stated starkly that the election of Jean Claude Juncker to head the European Commission would be evidence that Europe would not adopt Cameron style reform.
Yes, David. Exactly. Thanks for pointing it out. Personally I never thought you were wearing any trousers anyway, but if anyone did you have now dangled it right in their faces.
Cameron has made it even more plain by linking Juncker’s election directly to Cameron’s thesis that national governments must always be paramount in Europe. Juncker’s election is in accordance with an agreement that the leader of the largest party in the European Parliament will head the Commission. Thus, as Cameron pointed out, the very process itself is an advance of Euro-federalism and Euro-democracy, irrespective of Juncker’s views. Absolutely. Cameron’s thesis that national governments must be paramount over European institutions has already been defeated in what Cameron himself made a symbolic fight. The complete fatuity of Cameron’s re-negotiation claims is exposed.
Personally I am very pro-EU. But whatever your stance on the EU, the outright dishonesty of the Cameron approach must be condemned.
I published a couple of weeks ago that Juncker does not share Barroso’s hostility to Scottish independence: as a former Prime Minister of Luxembourg he does not see the problem with small nations. The British media has been extremely keen to puff up the opposition to Scottish independence by foreign leaders. Cameron and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have invested huge diplomatic capital into persuading Barack Obama and Li Keqiang to make statements against Scottish independence, while standing next to Cameron for the cameras.
The media failed to pay the same attention to a much more significant occasion – Angela Merkel refused to do it. Standing right next to David Cameron at a press conference in Sweden, Merkel rebuffed intense British diplomatic lobbying when she refused to back the continued existence of the state the man next to her was representing. It was a stunning slight, as Merkel knocked back the same question fed to Obama and Keqiang with the sensible (though entirely untrue) reply that she never answers hypothetical questions. Cameron stared at the floor, discomfited.
There was never the remotest chance that an independent Scotland would be excluded from the European Union. And the two people who are most important in that decision – Jean Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel – have not been amenable to the FCO’s frenetic anti-Scottish lobbying. They both are in positions much more vital to Scotland’s future than Barack Obama and Li Keqiang – both of whom will change their tune post-independence anyway.
Cameron’s headaches are multiplying.
“War Matters is a new documentary chronicling 10 years of anti-war protest in Britain through the story of veteran peace campaigner Brian Haw, who camped in Parliament Square for over 10 years in protest against the UK government’s policies in the Middle East.”
http://www.warmatters.com/
Hi Fred
Especially for you. Software that will block people posting about software to block people.
Habbabreak Silencer!
Another willing script from the free-love, open-source, no-money house of Afrend
I suppose the UK is the strongest weak link in the neocon chain.
The Poles and the other east Europeans are just there to make up the numbers, as the Polish foreign minister recently demonstrated with his blow-job analogy.
BoE, interest rates to rise to 2.5%. Bye bye free money for the wealth owning middle class.
Let’s just hope the Russians, Chinese and others don’t exit the London property market for better opportunities elsewhere. Remember, it’s only parked.
Mark Carney has his first meeting with NI “leaders” to appraise them of what 2.5% interest rates and much much less than that in growth actually mean for a statelet totally dependent on govt spending.
Oh dear, it’s so depressing.
On a brighter note, looks as if the whole of Ireland is being prepared for much closer relations with queenie, just as Scotland goes walkies.
Certainly looks as if the Scots have timed their exit well. Canny wotsits.
Doug Scorgie
“Criticism of the West does not equate to support for Putin.”
You haven’t read any of the comment threads on the Ukraine then.
I think the distinction that it is the mafia not the state who killed the journalists is otiose. The mafia controls the local authorities – governmental, judicial and police. At the level of the central state, the axis of the mafia, secret services and government is so seamless there is no point in distinguishing between them. Russia is the ultimate mafia state – in exactly the same way as, say, Bolivia in the 1970’s. I think you realise that.
Mary is hammering on about her 38 degrees petition.
As with so many things 38 degrees, the protest is against “corporate profits” rather than any rational understanding of the evidence.
Bee populations are also declining in areas not subjected to neonicotinoid pesticide use. I’m not suggesting that neonicotinoids do not play a part in reducing bee populations, especially where misused, but that by focusing entirely on one possible factor to the detriment of all others, the denizens of 38 degrees and its largely ignorant urban signatories are more of a hindrance to bee conservation than an advantage.
The message is a simple one: keep signing this petition and then Cameron will have to listen and then our bees will be Saved (and greedy Sygenta thwarted!!!).
Then the denizens will move on to their next protest, forgetting entirely about the bees and the multitude of factors that have caused their decline, while they continue to decline.
‘The message is a simple one: keep signing this petition and then Cameron will have to listen and then our bees will be Saved (and greedy Sygenta thwarted!!!).’
Exactly so. Here’s hoping.
There’s another 38Degrees protest taking place today. At the Tesco AGM for a living wage for their employees. The campaign was initiated by one of their ex managers.
I will keep you informed of further campaigns Anon. (Which Anon are you btw?) In spite of your disapproval, people are rising up. Sorry if that upsets you.
It gets worse for Agent Cameron and the spin doctors. I spotted Craig Oliver behind him today. Where is Andy Coulson when he’s needed?
Ex-Cameron aide Patrick Rock charged over abuse images
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28054433
Vile if true.
Craig, on Russia
“At the level of the central state, the axis of the mafia, secret services and government is so seamless there is no point in distinguishing between them.”
And how exactly do you think the US and UK are currently governed, other than by the above means.
Perhaps it’s escaped your notice, but both entities have moved a long way from the halcyon post war days when bureaucratic checks and balances were the peeps protection.
It can’t have escaped your notice that journalists and whistleblowers who deviate from the official script are likely to find themselves in difficulty.
The difference of course is that US and UK are employing such measures to prevent their death, the Russians and Chinese to enable their birth.
There will be no return to liberal democracy in the US or UK, but there’s every chance, indeed the necessity of that in Russia and China as growth takes hold.
Herbie
I quite agree with you that the situation in the UK, US etc is very much moving in the same direction. But to pretend that Russia is not much worse is ludicrous. But myself, Annie Machon, David Shayler, Dan Ellesberg, Ray McGovern etc are neither dead nor in jail. We would be so if we were whistleblowing in Russia – no doubt whatsoever. Dead, not in jail.
Craig
“At the level of the central state, the axis of the mafia, secret services and government is so seamless there is no point in distinguishing between them.”
Fair enough. But something fairly similar can be said about western europe states. Maybe you would prefer something like:
“At the level of the central state, the axis of the corporations, secret services and government is pretty seamless so there is no point in distinguishing between them.”
Big deal. It is, at best, only a matter of degree. Perhaps it is only a matter of sophistication. The Russians are just more crude.
Come on Craig. You have been pursued by your government for refusing to hide complicity in torture and muder. You must have seen people beaten because they dare to protest. You talk about Putinistas forgetting the people of Chechnya. Well I say you EU supporters forget the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and Libya. Let alone all the proxy wars supported by EU members. Let alone Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. This is not a UK problem. All the major European governments are at it. And the smaller ones, as Baals comment about Junker’s history attest. The EU will not temper these problems. It will be subject to all the perversions the member states now suffer. Except more so. Bigger government can only exacerbate the aggression and murder of the corporate state. The only solution is to bring systems of governence closer to home.
Down with the EU! Radical Decentralisation Now!
Yes Droilin, Brian Haw was a great friend whom I loved dearly PBUH – and protest is recurrently de rigueur as Mary suggested in her ‘swarm’ on Downing Street. I myself suggest the noun ‘swarm’ which is of immense interest to me.
We witness many swarms in nature often to frustrate a predator or better still provide a collective mind or consciousness that expands intelligence and serves to improve decision making.
Bees for instance have been known to ‘swarm’ during flooding to compose a raft or pontoon using unfertilized eggs as buoyancy aids. Ants also swarm and communicate by pheromones to make the task of moving home easier and less dangerous.
When humans ‘swarm’ they are of one purpose and through communication on a number of different levels that collective intellect united with the power of intention guarantees success against divide and rule and attempts to subvert or vitiate.
Craig
“But myself, Annie Machon, David Shayler, Dan Ellesberg, Ray McGovern etc are neither dead nor in jail.”
What you take as a positive about western states is more a tribute to their success to otherwise quell dissent. Russia’s willingness to more readily imprison and kill dissidents is a sign of relative weakness.
Maybe none of your list are much of a threat to the corporate state. The west works differently. Machon and Shayler lost all perspective and he has gone completely off the rails. You all basically still support the corporate state. You just want a nicer corporate state. This type of reformist opposition is perfectly acceptable to the state. There have always been elements of the establishment who hold exactly this position and it has changed nothing so far. In fact such liberal dissidence can be viewed as gate keepers of reasonable dissent. Defining the boundaries of complaint.
And anyway, others are dead or imprisoned.
Thanks for that Mark. I cannot say I was a friend of Brian’s but I admired him greatly and stopped to have a chat with him if I was up in London. Greatly missed. Ever cheerful and brave to have withstood all that pressure from the state operatives.
Nothing ever came of erecting his statue. As if ‘they’ would have allowed it.
Look at these blue rubber gloved hands. Shades of Abu Ghraib. What were they afraid of contracting? Human decency? Courage?
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/royal-eyesore-protesters-jeer-queen-on-her-way-to-parliament-6473195.html
Yes Haw was a giant. Already he seems a figure of a time past.
Have you seen the film Dreoilin? I know a few people in the trailer!
According to the Torygraph Cameron has now defiantly roared that ” he may have lost the battle but he’ll win the war” with regard to EU/Juncker etc..
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
With insane tabloid rambling like that Cameron and his speechwriters really should be led away by the men in white coats.
Complete madness using such language.
“Have you seen the film Dreoilin? I know a few people in the trailer!”
Not yet, Phil. I saw the trailer and I bought the film. I’ll be downloading it tonight. There was an option to either stream it or download it. (and I think to buy the DVD if you preferred.)
I see from Mary’s link that Brian Haw’s T-shirt states “IRAQ 2,000,000 DEAD”.
A new one to me and by all accounts a record-breaker, given that was in 2010.
Craig went for one million the other day, so apparently double the amount of people had died four years ago than today.
“Jives” plucked for 650,000.
“Peacewisher”, going for the Brian Haw Award, tried for “A million about ten years ago”.
“Je” reckoned it was 188,000.
Just make it up as you go along.
Mr Scorgie
“I think that the Russian mafia have more to do with the murder of journalists than the state, though no doubt they have infiltrated the power structure.”
_________________
A bit of back up for that statement would be welcome, Doug.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Criticism of the West does not equate to support for Putin.”
___________________
Really? Have you been reading this blog lately, Doug?
*******************
La vita è bella, life is good!
Anon,
No i didnt ‘pluck’ 650,000.
That figure was from research from The Lancet,which i referenced at the time.
Whether you believe The Lancet or not is a different issue.
But i certainly didnt just ‘pluck’ the figure.
Dont bother apologising,i wouldnt expect you too.
“2,000,000 dead”
Iraq costs about $2 Trillion, but the Judas Goat is not quite cooked yet.
These bickerings about bodies count are disgusting. They are completely irrelevant to any conclusions we might draw from the wars.
Would we expect the Iraq War 2 to be any different to the first one?
“The policy of the American commander-in-chief, General Norman Schwarzkopf, was that the Iraqi dead were not to be counted. One of his senior officers boasted: “This is the first war in modern times where every screwdriver, every nail, is accounted for.” As for human beings, he added, “I don’t think anybody is going to be able to come up with an accurate count for the Iraqi dead.”
http://johnpilger.com/articles/in-the-gulf-war-every-last-nail-was-accounted-for-but-the-iraqi-dead-went-untallied-at-last-their-story-is-being-tol
So a nail,for example,is of more account to these twisted bastards…
Craig
I do hope that you are engaging with the likes of Herbie and Phil not in order to convince them but rather to demonstrate to the general reader with an open mind that they are fruitcakes.
I love the latest line taken by Phil. Faced with the fact that in Russia, whistleblowers, crusading journalists and other dissidents tend to get killed, whereas in the West they tend not to, Phil finds the answer: they doin’t get killed in the West because they’re not dangerous enough! In other words, they’re not very good whistleblowers, crusading journalists and dissidents.
A pretty pathetic line (which should not be dignified with the expression “line of reasoining”).
Phil
“These bickerings about bodies count are disgusting.”
_____________________
Well, I’d just note that any bickering appears to be between the Eminences themselves, who put forward such widely different figures.
All Anon is doing is to point out that fact.
All he’s doing is exposing the Emperor’s nudity (sorry if that sounds too much like one of Ben’s lottle quips)
“These bickerings about bodies count are disgusting. They are completely irrelevant to any conclusions we might draw from the wars.”
I think they are quite relevant, Phil, given that certain parties see fit to massively exaggerate the numbers killed for political purposes. That’s the real sickness here, and it needs to be called out.
‘massively exaggerate’ the totality of abject failure in Iraq is what, a metaphor for re-inventing the idea of success?
“Sorry sir, the hospital had some vacant beds, so the kill-list came up short.”
Iraq: The things warmongers said
June 27, 2014
http://rt.com/op-edge/168872-iraq-things-warmongers-said/#
~~
For those who want to know and who truly care, try Section 16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
for definitive figures of those Iraqi people killed by the weaponry of the evil coalition.
Remember too all those who died as an effect of the earlier sanctions and in the first Gulf war.
They were ALL, every one of them, people – men, women and children – made of flesh and blood as we are too.
Not forgetting the number of infants with birth defects
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/741-damning-evidence-becomes-no-clear-evidence-much-delayed-report-on-congenital-birth-defects-in-iraq.html
and the number of those made widow, widower, orphan, refugee……
We all feel enormous shame.
“Anon, No i didnt ‘pluck’ 650,000. That figure was from research from The Lancet, which i referenced at the time. Whether you believe The Lancet or not is a different issue.”
650,000 is a good one. It’s about middling as far as wild guesstimates go, but not too wild so as to be laughed out of the forum. High enougb to sound suitably shocking, but not too high.
Quite how the Lancet medical journal can be held up as some sort of authority on US-caused deaths in a part of the world virtually inaccessible to Westerners due to continued Muslim-on-Muslim violence is beyond me, but I’m sure the authors had their agenda.
FWIW, I’m going to claim 8 million died in Iraq, and anyone who disagrees with me is trying to play down the numbers killed by the evil imperialist bastards. So there.
Anon,
Youre a very poor apologist for the disastrous Iraq war.
I suppose in your rose-tinted world the toll was 29 killed.
And a dog-but it was old anyway.
Keep taking the coin Anon…
What instructive discussions. Phil: it wasn’t actually the ‘EU’ which declared war on Afghanistan and Iraq, as I remember. It was the US. A number of EU states volunteered to participate, a number didn’t: those who didn’t were, like Germany threatened. As was, apparently, Iceland, which was not a member of the EU. Am I wrong here?