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Friday, June 03, 2005

Responses

I think the economic reform of the EU is very much a Blair/Brown agenda and should provide the way forward. Economic integration is so far advanced I don't think it is reversible.

The French Left really does need to get its act together. I remember how frustrated I felt when they had to vote for Chirac to keep LePen out. They are still locked into a system which allows over 10% unemployment and seem blind to the dangers that creates.

I really have given up on 'someone'. I have tried answering questions and even offered to meet in order to allow him time to pursue the details. I have also ignored the more immature comments but as some of you have pointed out I ought to have made more use of the delete button!

So two final comments to 'someone'. Firstly anonymity doesn't give anyone confidence about your position especially when you claim to have fled from a Middle East tyranny - your real name suggests that is unlikely. Secondly please try and accept that people can honestly disagree. We do disagree both on analysis and on morality - that is not exactly unusual in life!

What infuriated me about the "no" camp in France was the accusation that economic reform was an "Anglo-Saxon" concept and that automatically meant it was bad. There was as much parochialism and xenophobia in the French "no" campaign - particularly its left-wing supporters - as there is in the UK Independence Party. So much for European unity! (Incidentally, France is a share-holder in the IMF, but I don't see it challenging the "Anglo-Saxon" orthodoxy of IMF structural adjustment policies - it is quite happy for aggressive liberalisation in the developing world)

If the French government wants the European project to advance, it will have to learn that a larger Europe will have a diverse range of concepts and that integration can only progress as fast as its most sceptical members wish it to progress. Chirac's undiplomatic Brit-bashing does nothing to make the UK want to jump on board the Franco-German federalist bang-wagon. He has to accept that he has lost the argument and move on. That is the price you pay in a political union.

I agree with you, Clive. A constitution is not needed. It is an irrelevance. Political integration is being driven by ideology, while the crisis at the heart of the European economy is being ignored. The poor performance of the German and French economies should be a worry to everyone, but these countries' governments don't seem to be listening to their own people let alone their European partners.

I think we should offer a fair bargain: the UK will give up its rebate if the Common Agricultural Policy is abolished. The CAP is a burden on farmers, consumers and tax-payers and distorts global markets. Farmers on the continent should adapt and become more flexible. It's not up to UK tax-payers to maintain their inefficient farming systems. And third world farmers should not have to suffer EU price dumping policies, in which heavily subsidised surplus produce is discarded at below-cost prices that no-one in the developing world could possibly compete against. The CAP is killing thousands of people, but is being kept alive for the benefit of populists such as Jose Bove.

Give up rebate for abolishment of CAP? If such a thing were possible, I'd vote for it right away. I've not read up much on CAP but my understanding is it is the number one thing holding back the Third World.

I've read news reports quoting people like Mr Solana and Kofi Annan as saying the EU won't be greatly affected by the French and Dutch NO votes. But one wonders how this will this affect reputation and credibility when it comes to foreign policy and the EU as a force to be reckoned with (which I was getting the impression it was, especially as a strategic partner to NATO on providing logistical support to African Union troops in Darfur).

It would be such a pity if the EU loses clout and impact. I thought it was doing pretty well, organising rapid reaction forces to deploy to hotspots at a few weeks notice. My understanding is in January 2005 UK troops went into training with French troops to form a Rapid Reaction Force. I wonder how such future projects will be affected.

Maybe the EU needs to do a PR exercise on educating people. I for one must be one of many millions who have not the foggiest idea really what the European Union is all about.

I'd read somewhere that somone overheard two French or Dutch, sorry I can't recall, discussing which way they would vote. One answered that they would vote NO because everyone was trying to get them to vote YES. I am not sure if I have recalled it correctly, the point I am making is who knows how many people know exactly what they are voting for when it comes to the European Union? When people are not sure, my guess is they vote to keep their own national identity and money.

Clive,

"...anonymity doesn't give anyone confidence about your position especially when you claim to have fled from a Middle East tyranny - your real name suggests that is unlikely"

You really are confused. Am I anonymous or do you know my real name? If you're going by the e-mail address, I would have thought that a person who recommends 'Animal Farm' to others might have tagged that "Winston Smith" is probably not my real name, but perhaps I've overestimated you. Or perhaps you don't believe that Arabs read? That fits well with your general infantilising of my region and its people - those who need to be civilised through bombing and invasion. Maybe that's the source of your confusion.

As for where I've come from, I don't need to prove anything to you, nor have I used my origins as the basis of any substantive arguments or questions to you. Your raising of this issue is a rather pathetic attempt to skirt to avoid the questions at hand, as is your obsession with my identity.

You are a public official and everything you do is questionable in public, not in private meetings.

You've answered none of the questions asked, only repeated your hoots about anonymity. The archives are available for all to read if they so wish.

You also make a point of never speaking about Fallujah. Not even once, despite your impassioned speach calling for Black Watch to facilitate it's destruction by the US? You don't even respond to dismiss it as an issue. Again, a reflection of your true concern for Iraq lives. Foxes have received more from you and your friends.

You will indeed need to start deleting my questions if you really want them to stop appearing here.

S.

One more things Clive.

Deaths require answers. There is no room for "honest disagreement" on this point. You did what you did on our watch, as our employee, living off our taxes. Your actions, as well as those of your friends - small, pathetic and cowardly as they may have been, have led to tens of thousands of deaths. You must answer properly. Whether you like it or not, this will simply never go away. Too many have died. No memory holes here Clive. None.

S.

Having watched the exchange between Clive and 'Someone' I do think that Clive's recent response is rather churlish.
When war is concerned and with the recognised polarity of nations perspectives are concerned emotions are bound to be strong.
To be honest Clive I think you are beginning to feel the heat and it is uncomfortable.

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