tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post7033988639996914659..comments2023-10-14T13:18:37.330+01:00Comments on angels in marble: Democracy Denied in Major European Union Stateshatfield girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12673905475452420002noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-70425051960709260562013-05-13T08:17:48.563+01:002013-05-13T08:17:48.563+01:00More or less, Anon. Quite commonplace to turn up ...More or less, Anon. Quite commonplace to turn up armed to the teeth etc. Ask Africans. Not allowed in Europe any more, not even in the Balkans or Ireland.hatfield girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12673905475452420002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-66983224586769522682013-05-13T08:15:27.211+01:002013-05-13T08:15:27.211+01:00I will try S,and thank you for the invitation. Bu...I will try S,and thank you for the invitation. But see the next post - they actually appear to mean it!hatfield girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12673905475452420002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-71282118271823799912013-05-10T20:25:50.907+01:002013-05-10T20:25:50.907+01:00I'm a bit curious about the sentiments express...I'm a bit curious about the sentiments expressed here.<br />"...no Europeans are going to permit the use of their terrain as battle fields again."<br />I do not recall ever reading about any European country (or any country worldwide, for that matter) actually "..permitting the use of their terrain as battlefields.."<br />What exactly is the correct "form" for this?<br />Is there a UN standard form? Whatever the method, is there a general invitation for interested parties to visit, armed to the teeth of course, and generally enact mayhem, murder and bloody war? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-347019123363089242013-05-10T13:06:54.228+01:002013-05-10T13:06:54.228+01:00HG, would you consider doing a beginner's brie...HG, would you consider doing a beginner's briefing for World Voices about what's going on in Italy?Sackersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17284329249862764601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-28571358078625402872013-05-10T12:15:49.548+01:002013-05-10T12:15:49.548+01:00We've got an extra-constitutional president ru...We've got an extra-constitutional president ruling the country who is an original stalinist, the real thing, now in extreme old age (as such a relic would be, but he belongs in a museum). We've got a political class who have ignored the general election results (after the stalinist denying one for 18 months while the EU projecteers were further embedded into Italy's financial and economic affairs). We've got mass unemployment; the state refusing to pay debts owed to the private sector, pretending it's the EU that is able to prevent the payments; the ruling elites are kleptocratic (which is where much of the money has gone). We've got no money in the unemployment fund to pay survival incomes to a million laid-off workers (cf kleptocracy). We've now got a charade of a Parliament where all the parliamentary commissions which are central to the initiation of legislation and the functioning of parliamentary democracy Italian style are chaired by the convicted, the indicted and the investigated. A parliament where the largest elected party has been excluded from any role and denounced as populist reactionary ignoramuses who must be kept from disturbing the national pacification policy. We have the judiciary being attacked both by violent and condoned demonstations in courtrooms and by assaults from the executive and the presidential office. <br /><br />Berlusconi can bring down the administration anytime and does not only because of secret agreements about his imprisonable status with the stalinist president being meticulously observed.<br /><br />Words are not the stuff to give them, S. Our grandfathers should have put them away in their box properly, when the current dictatorial president was even then at his nasty work.hatfield girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12673905475452420002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-84589473154156307062013-05-09T13:46:43.838+01:002013-05-09T13:46:43.838+01:00That's the stuff to give them.That's the stuff to give them.Sackersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17284329249862764601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-23666440766477685432013-05-09T08:49:38.828+01:002013-05-09T08:49:38.828+01:00The establishment of Italy speaks of the process o...The establishment of Italy speaks of the process of 'national pacification' ie re-imposing party authority over the electorate. We elected over 25% of Parliament's members and the result is dictatorship - a closing of ranks, led by the country's president and backed by the EU to extra-constitutionally exclude from power all our representatives and to bend other institutions like the judiciary in the service of this 'national pacification'.<br /><br />This was never part of the wholly reasonable project to re-unite Germany; this is the resurgence of state authoritarianism that we thought our grandfathers defeated last century. It's a measure too of just how deeply-rooted are the wrong'uns, some of them still in power after all these years. Self-righteous grotesques, old men still asserting their old evils.hatfield girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12673905475452420002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956830097495837473.post-65134471570778483022013-05-09T08:20:24.189+01:002013-05-09T08:20:24.189+01:00As Tim Worstall points out, the EU seems and awful...As Tim Worstall points out, the EU seems and awful lot of trouble to go to, just to prevent Germany invading France again.<br /><br />Especially now that the Germans have found other - so far, effective - ways to impose their will on their neighbours.<br /><br />And there are other reasons why major European land wars are now highly unlikely: for one, our populations are ageing and wars are a young mans' thing; for another, we have reduced our military capabilities way below what would be needed. <br /><br />Yes, the "project" has outlived any usefulness it ever had.Weekend Yachtsmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04262853091154005651noreply@blogger.com