EU Crisis: Support for Union Utopia Grows in the East While Faltering in the West

Strong feelings stretching from London to Kiev are prevailing against and for the Union. Is the noble idea of European Union going the way of the Eurovision song contest!! We shared a common effort to sing together during the 1960’70’s and 80’s. Now this show (the song contest I mean) represents an out of tune affair with little interest from the west other than the giggles its bizarre content supplies.   

But at least it is somewhat entertaining if not a bit childish. On the other hand there is nothing laughable about the mounting task facing Europe to sort out its EU future. More and more Brussels central is being portrayed as self-serving. The EU is increasingly becoming a personality with its own distinct character; an entity shaping a future separate to its original purpose with little regards for the sensitivities of the nation states which created it. Ultimately these states will destroy it should no consensus be found on direction over the coming decade.

In a democracy you cannot pass laws influencing people’s lives secretly and without their knowledge and then insist to applying these laws as if they have common approval.

Dead but not forgotten. Man's search for Utopia still lingers in Post Soviet Kremlin games. Moves
to incorporate Ukraine into the EU is being checked by Russian grand masters of destiny.
image- post communism series 1989-2001 

Country identity belongs to those who built it over generations and not to the hungry EU. 

This message needs to be listened to.

So this is Western thinking. The western media is now full of this argument with London the centre of resistance. Big, rich, confident and assertive, why should this glorious capital bow to a commission of 28 and its army of 60,000 technocrats!

The flip side to this coin is in the East. While some mutterings may from time to time come from the Czechs general support for the Union is solid. It is the unsure, the poorer, the downtrodden and the aspirational who see the Union as means to feel free even though they have little or no say in creating its laws. Their choice is simple. Who is the lesser of a dictate directive! Brussels or Moscow! It is totally understandable that Putin’s Russia is unappealing to former Warsaw pact countries.

Russia stepped in and is telling Ukraine which road to tread and if Ukraine follows regardless of the will of its citizens while the EU looks on and does nothing, then London will win its biggest fight. Oh yes The EU is big at spending but when citizens freedom is under threat it is not the EU who offers protection but our very own national capitals.

When songs are singing for Europe in Denmark 2014 it may be that Ukraine opts to play Shakespeare’s Hamlet instead. 

EU Crisis: The Rise, Rise and Rise of the Euroskeptics

Marine Le Pen is swept into the mainstream. The Front National
is poised to use the Europe problem as a platform in the
May 2014 Strasbourg elections. image: Paris political rally

Marine Le Pen’s Euroskeptic National Front moves into the lead for the May 2014 European elections and now looks on track to becoming the largest party in France.  Polls put her on top at 24%.

A spokesman for the party declared “A brilliant victory” for the National Front after a local election success. "The French are showing a wish to take their destiny into their hands and take back their sovereignty." He also predicted an "unprecedented earthquake" in the next European elections; a claim echoed by many of the rising Euroskeptic parties of both the left and the right.

"All the ingredients are coming together for people to express their discontent with everything associated with Europe, immigration, globalisation, and so on."

The Front’s power base is in the south of France, where fear of immigration, identity crisis, austerity and recession are creating opposition to the Brussels Federalist ideology. 

 NF success is mirrored across Europe where Skeptic support grows.  Marine Le Pen is interested to jointly campaign with Geert Wilders of the Netherlands anti-immigration Freedom Party. . “It is important that voters see we are not alone, and that there are similar patriotic movements in every EU country,” she said.

Is this the beginning of a clear voice for the European Parliament.! A choice for voters to be represented through defined political roles concerning Europe’s future.

New Skeptic parties should impact but they will engage with the pro-European camp in establishing meaningful reformist coalitions. Politicians have a way of diluting their rhetoric once they taste the honey elixir of power and privilege.  

Brussels Federalist ideology may be over for now. The third attempt may have failed, but the project to unite the Europe project in some shape or form is far from over and in fact is most likely unstoppable. May 2014 is still some way off.

Syrian Conflict: The Hezbollah Effect

President Assad has held his line. The Us President has telephoned the new Iranian president to hammer out peace negotiations. The Syrian free army and Al Qaida affiliate groups are backed up against the Turkish border. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are at a loss over their next move.

In Short the civil war in Syria has an outcome.  The Shia Crescent spread its influence from Tehran across Iraq to the port of Tartus embracing Alawite Syria and Shia Lebanon. It’s complete. The sectarian and economic confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has forged lines. Turkey to the north and Gulf states to the south are Sunni lands. The Shia crescent between is clear; just like the mighty gas which will flow through its Islamic pipeline towards Europe.  

The 2013 summer battle for the strategic town of Al Qusayr tipped the balance. After it fell to Assad’s army it was too late for further proxy intervention. It came down to the presence of a few thousand Hezbollah fighters to decide the fate of the Syrian civil war.

“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other regional countries backing Syria's rebels must acknowledge their failures to bring down the Syrian government, and join efforts for a political solution to end the two and a half year civil war,” Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said Monday 08^th Oct 13.

"I call on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other Gulf states to revise your stance," he said. "You won't reach anywhere by relying on a military victory….. think with your minds. Think about your interests, the interests of the region, the survival of the region."

It took several thousand fighters from Hezbollah's Unit 910, external security organisation, to tip
the balance in the 2 yr Syrian civil war. Now it's peace deals, with Iran's Shia Crescent the winner.    

Nasrallah said that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are using Hezbollah as a scapegoat "to run away from their failures," by accusing the highly trained resistance army of occupying Syria.

"For two and a half years, they used everything in their disposal ... to control Syria and they failed. Of course Hezbollah are foreigners, we are not Syrian, but what about the tens of thousands of foreign fighters who you brought from all over the world? Are they occupying Syria?"

President Assad, who is currently undergoing rehabilitation with western powers, said in an interview with Der Spiegel, “Victory is stability. The real battle for Syria is to get rid of their (Al Qaida) ideology.

It cannot be that an eight-year-old boy tries to behead someone, which happened in the north. Or children watch a beheading with jubilation, happy, like they're watching a soccer match. If we don't deal with this problem, which is more dangerous than the terrorists themselves, we're going to face a bleak future.”

Global Mind Games: Russia and U.S. Battle Words in Search of Nirvana.

A cynical exchange of words over the Syria conflict is exposing an expanding void between East and Western military/economic alliances to direct global management.

The West, led by the US with its European & Gulf friends face Putin’s Russia backed by Iran, Syria & China.

India, Pakistan, Brazil and some others teeter on the sidelines looking for signs of opportunity.

This showdown, Mexican standoff, a High Noon for the next great global leap towards an Earthly Empire is here already. But what are they babbling about.

“Keep your nukes in their silos and we will do the same,” they shout to each other! “No need to fight, this is just business.”

Waiting for Nirvana. A Buddha moment on a Netherlands beach during
the height of the Global financial crisis in 2011. East and West spat over who
offers the best route to bliss and enlightenment.   

Russia’s Putin declared in the New York Times.

“We need to use the United Nations Security Council…. The law is still the law; whether we like it or not. Force is permitted only in self-defence; anything else would constitute an act of aggression.”

“Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan "you're either with us or against us".

US war veteran John McCain retaliated on the pages of Russia’s Pravda Magazine.

The US senator declared that Putin and his associates,

"Punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organisations that defend your right to self-governance."

"He is not enhancing Russia’s global reputation. He is destroying it. He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed, and untrusted by nations that seek to build a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world."

The fact about this verbal spat is that both men are right and wrong. They understand very well their romantic ballet is about how Five Billion new human arrivals, since the end of W.W.11 seven decades past, are watered, fed, housed, heated and supplied with stuff.

Who controls this supply will win the lead for decades to come. Can we not do it together, share and share alike? “Sorry,” they say “ready for the management job but not ready to trust you lot on the factory floor. Not just yet.”

Globally, we continue to embrace Science and Technology as the modern means to achieve Nirvana. And when finally enlightenment arrives shall we transcend planetary suffering and desires.

I hear the calling of the enchanted; the wailing Encantado and the mischievous forest spirits. “The West is the Best. The East is Spiritual. We are the same but all are different.”

Ha ah! Know thyself and this truth shall set you free! 

EU Federalism Undergoes Radical Soul Searching As Reality Dawns Clear

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso gave his state of the Union address 11 September 2013. Besides the expected cheer for his waning Federalist cause he hints at a new normal for the European project.

 “Let me say this to all those who rejoice in Europe's difficulties and who want to roll back our integration and go back to isolation: the pre-integrated Europe of the divisions, the war, the trenches, is not what people desire and deserve.

Does everyone still remember just how much Europe has suffered from its wars during the last century, and how European integration was the valid answer?

Does anyone seriously believe that, if the euro had collapsed, we or our Member States would still have any credibility left internationally?

I recognize: as any human endeavour, the EU is not perfect. Let's make no mistake: there is no way back to business as usual. Some people believe that after this everything will come back as it was before. They are wrong, this crisis is different. This is not a cyclical crisis, but a structural one. We will not come back to the old normal. We have to shape a new normal. We are in a transformative period of history.”

Is Europe turning the corner away from crisis and the Federalist agenda. Winds of change are 
upon us says Commission president Manuel Barroso. Its time for a New Normal.
Image from Martin Nangle series Dutch Landscapes 2009 -2011

The political maze, that is Europe’s character, has left Chancellor Angela “Mutti” Merkel and the new Germany as the undisputed champion of European economic and political thinking.

Results to date from the existentialist financial crisis have spoken. Germany is back to where it was before the crisis began in 2008 while the rest struggle to keep up.

In peace, prepare for war. In war prepare for peace.  In this case war and peace is boom and bust.

So where we are now just days before Merkel is ushered into a third term as German Chancellor and de facto guru for the European Union.

We are divided as ever. For some, economic reforms are working and in a short few years we’ll reap their benefits. For others we are merely papering over the cracks and as the financial juggernaut resurfaces from the policies of quantitative easing a second coming is foretold:

The darkness drops again but now I know
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep
 Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?    

If the Federalist movement accepts the need for a new normal, then exciting times are indeed ahead. 

 Surely some revelation is at hand;
 Surely the Second Coming is at hand.  W. B. Yeats

U.S. and French Attack on Syria Linked to Turf War over Supplying Natural Gas to Europe.

Extraordinary claims that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are pitched in a proxy war against Iran, Russia and Syria to control whose gas is sold to Europe reminisces of Mafia and gangland turf spats.

It seems one bunch of thugs is clipping the other over lucrative European energy markets addicted to cheap fixes and that the excuse to up the ante is the use of chemical weapons. The most recent incident left over 1400 innocent Damascus civilians dead.    

While not serious enough at the moment to start a full blown war, if such a scenario was to happen the entire Middle East could ignite into total chaos dragging the world with it.

Russia has the largest reserves of natural gas followed by Iran. Qatar with a population of just 800,000 is third with 15% of the world’s reserves. That’s some clout for a country the size of Jacksonville Florida.

A recent discovery of major gas fields off Cyprus and Syria adds to the dimension.

The fact that a delivery route, dubbed “The Islamic Pipeline” is a signed agreement (2011) to take Iranian gas through Iraq to the Syrian Mediterranean port at Lattakia unsettled the Gulf Arabs and are now he main sponsors of the Syrian rebels. Controlling Syria checks Iranian aspirations.

"War of the Gas-Masks." Syrian conflict is linked to controlling flow of
natural  gas to Europe.  Opponents Iran and Qatar are number 2 & 3
 after Russia for world gas reserves. Images; the 1st Gulf War 1991 

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also allies with the US in the War on Terror. This is looking increasingly like a “War of the Gas-Masks.” Some they say get rich in wartime.

In all do we care who the supplier of what we need is. Well to some degree it should matter if innocents are getting killed and hypocrisy is the sermon of the day.

Some are claiming it was mis-handled Saudi Chemical Weapons supplied to the Rebels which cause the slaughter if the innocents in Damascus. While others in Allied West are “convinced” Assad is to blame.

Either way it’s a sign we are on course for war in the coming years. The weapons used will be brutal and devastating.

E.U. Crisis: Debate on Europe #2. Freedom or Money, Which one makes the world go round.

Without freedom there is no money and without money there is no freedom.

City fund manager Helena Morrissey whose firm has almost £55bn under management, said she was “not afraid that all will be lost” if Britain leaves the single market.

“I am convinced that the tide of influence is moving away from the top down, command and control, one-size-fits-all approach to business and politics.”

She describes the European Union a “flawed model of the past.”  Several experiences have left her “disillusioned about the EU’s approach to effecting change” she said, citing poor decision making and lack of evidence or understanding to back up views as main reasons.

“Lack of flexibility and accountability within the Eurozone has left a whole generation of young people paying a very painful price for this imperial, large-scale, flawed political agenda,” she added.

Writing on walls is no longer just for anarchists. Participants at the summer Graffiti Jam in
Derry-Londonderry UK city of culture 2013.  

Her most scathing comments are addressed for Euro leaders’ mind-sets. “Eurozone politicians are determined to defend the monetary union whatever the social cost in Greece, Portugal and Spain. Their desire to be proven right may well outweigh their motivation to do the right thing.”

This mind-set seems to be defining the structures and differences growing between Eurocrats and national politicians. Which philosophy to follow …..”No we can’t” or “Yes we can.” 

Business leader Sir Richard Branson warns of dangers in putting “politics before economics.” He claims Britain’s EU membership is worth almost £92bn a year and even closer EU integration could add a further £110bn.

 “The debate on Europe is not going away anytime soon, and it’s vital that those arguing the case for staying in the EU, and those pressing for an exit, come up with clear, evidence-led visions for the UK,” says current director of the Confederation of British industry.

“We must consider what an alternative for the UK would look like, based on hard facts, not emotion or hollow rhetoric.”

However there is increasing political support for an “out” vote in Mr Cameron’s proposed 2017 referendum. As those who once ruled through Empire know very well once one country leaves the fold others will follow.

Departure from Empire is often the result of suppression, discrimination or national rebirth for greater glory.  At present there are just too many fundamental flaws inside the E.U. Failure to listen and implement calls for EU reform will be an act of folly precipitating a UK reaction into an action for secession. 

Why Ed Snowden Matters: Self-Imposing Psychological Weapons and the Surveillance Society:

“Always remember you have nothing to fear if you are a good citizen not doing anything wrong. Don’t criticise the State unnecessarily because the State is your friend. Like your father and your mother it provides. Terrorists, traitors, subversives and rebels are everywhere. They can be in your street, in your family and sometimes in your mind. Are you a Rebel? Only your state of mind can identify and bring subversives to justice. Honour those who watch over you for they are guardians of your freedom and civil liberties.

V for Vendetta. Can we believe anyone or anything. Can we trust our children,
our neighbours, ourselves. Vote yes if you have faith in government.
Vote yes if you do not have faith in government.
  

Sleep well at night knowing you have done no wrong this day.  You need us. You cannot survive without us. You will submerge under impure thoughts from those who think different to freedom. Don’t read or write. Be beautifully silent, listen, and enjoy, obedient consent.”  

------------------------------------------

Outcome from the Ed Snowden affair is drawing lines through western society.  The question is simple.

Is Edward Snowden… traitor or hero! The answer defines your state of mind. Some will say citizens should not be afraid of their governments. But they are because governments constantly behave badly. Others will say it a price to pay for protection from ……well whatever….you never know what’s out there. Look at recent history.

For these citizens control is about the other persons, those who are a nuisance, rock the boat, but never me, because I give obedient consent to state protection.

Those who criticise government, or to give them their proper status, those selected for targeting, say society is a consent battlefield for control of information.  Who controls information controls the truth.

Both sides say the freedom and equality you expect and cherish so much does not exist, only in your dreams. Both sides say sorry if I fight for the greater cause of freedom- it’s a family tradition.

Danger arising from obsessive control is well documented. Our reaction to today’s mass surveillance programmes will shape tomorrow’s society and the state of your mind.

Too Big to Fail, Too big to Jail; The Anglo Gang Remains At Large

Vying for notoriety. Can the Irish Anglo Gang
upstage some of the greatest Bank Robbers of time. 

In the intriguing case of the Anglo-Irish Banking scandal it seems state and citizens were marks for daylight robbery and ridicule.

Questions over why the bank guarantee went ahead in 2008 under fierce doubt and criticism is now being linked to the “Golden Circle,” a network of political influence and the wider financial spectrum.  The Anglo tapes allow us an insight into an absurd banking culture but it also highlights contempt the sector has for the integrity of nation states and its citizens.

If the Anglo gang behaved the way it did then so does all other similar financial intuitions. Such is the nature of a dog eat dog culture, comparable to the nature of any criminal stratum which cares less about anything beyond self-gratification and perseverance.

It is no surprise to hear accusations this conspiracy and treachery involves the ECB, Euro guardians and the Troika. It will be no surprise if they were/are involved in orchestrating this biggest robbery of recent times. Conspiracies do happen. Anglo is proof of guilt but justice will never be served. Why, because, this conspiracy didn’t lose the battle.  It walked away in a giggle with 60 billion of Irish people’s money.   While the conspirators are alive and at large there will be no culpa or retribution.  Golden Circles are just that, they are too big to fail and too big to jail.

Until shock is surpassed by anger and until anger is tempered by resolve, the best citizens can hope for is token revenge. No doubt that will be served on those who have passed away or some unfortunate expendables of no tangible threat to the “Golden Circles.”

A Perfect Spy is in the Cold

We all knew we were being spied on. But the scale of operations is just staggering. Has Obama forfeited his claim to be a people’s president, some claim he is worse than Richard Nixon.

Ed Snowden, a former systems administrator at the NSA (national security agency) gave a startling interview to the Guardian Newspaper from his June 2013 position in Hong Kong. He is now on the run and has given encoded files containing NSA secrets to several trusted friends. If anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked and publicised.

Extracts from the interview sums up the world we can look forward to if the Prism programme continues on present course.

Snowden: Intro

“Sitting at my desk I certainly had the authority to wiretap anyone right up to the president who has a personal e-mail…. I think the public is owed an explanation of the motivations behind the people who make these disclosures that are outside of the democratic model.

When you are subverting the power of government - that is a fundamental dangerous thing to democracy….. And it (Surveillance society) is going to get worse with the next generation and the next generation who extend the capabilities of this type of architecture of repression

I could be rendered by the CIA, I could have people come after me and they could even pay off the Triads. That’s a fear I will have to live under the rest of my life for however long that happens to be….. If they want to get you they will get you in time.”

Guardian:  Why should people care about surveillance?

PRISM/US-984XN much of the world’s information flows through the USA.
 Prism targets phone calls, e-mail or chat to take the cheapest path….

It has already 97 billion pieces of intelligence from networks worldwide. 

“You can’t come forward against the world most powerful intelligence agencies

 and be completely free from risk, no one can meaningfully oppose them”  Ed Snowden.

“Because even if you are not doing anything wrong you are being watched and recorded….to the point where you don’t have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody even by a wrong call….

Then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinise every decision you have ever made, every friend you have ever discussed something with and attack you on that basis…..  to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.

The greatest fear I have regarding the outcome for America from these disclosures is, that nothing will change….people will know the lengths government is going to grant themselves power to create greater control over American society and global society……. but they will not take the risk to stand up and fight to change things.

And, the months ahead and the years ahead it is only going to get worse until eventually there will be a time where a new leader will be elected, they will flip the switch and say that because of a crisis or the dangers we face in the world…we need more authority we need more power and there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it and it will be turnkey tyranny”…..ends.

Typical of people who relish control, some politicians rushed to call for retribution, including Southern Baptist Republican Lindsey Graham who said;   

"I hope we'll chase him to the ends of the earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there will be consequences if they harbour this guy."

Wasn't the Cold War about ending communist state repression and advancing civil liberties & democracy???

Snowden is in the Cold. But because of him, the government’s prying Prism feels the Heat.

EU Crisis: Battle to Control our Connected Planet, Enter the Gladiators.

Troika leaders bungled as they tried to save their Euro baby at the expense of the Greek economy. According to an IMF report the Greek bailout was designed to protect the vulnerable currency from potentially catastrophic effects to the global economy.

If Greece is part of the Eurozone then a question; is any member expendable, is there any that aren't!

This and other developments, the challenge to privacy, increased powers for Brussels, the demonisation of opposition and the rise of the snooping state, is becoming issues for pending elections and referendums about United Europe’s (US) future. These ballots will determine style and nature around how we seemingly permit ourselves to be governed in the coming decades. Hot players for the power seats include Banks, Corporations, new Security Governments, revivalist religion and the Open Society mainstream classes. An arena where all’s fair in love and war?

A recent experience with security employees from the ECB (European Central Bank) in Frankfurt resulted in the all too common response to citizen reaction following an invasion of privacy in a public place. “Everyone is a terrorist suspect.” 

A Bible for the War! New game same rules. All's fair if your are the
winner. Power struggles for the global order will involve many more
players on the field. Image, A Croat soldier reads his bible during a lull
on the front line in the last European conflict. Bosnia 1993  

Does this courtesy extend to the growing number of Accusers in Frankfurt, Washington, London, Beijing or Moscow!

What makes their desire for control more legal than those who cherish privacy?

What makes their use of the snooping state more legal than those who expose its workings?

“There is no such thing as a Terrorist! The combatant style of asymmetrical warfare is commonly referred to as Terrorism, Rebellion or Insurgency.  Often this is amended to freedom fighters, resistance movements or revolution; should combatants be successful in their efforts to take power.”

Troika belligerents such as Brussels Commission’s Olli Rhen and ECB’s Mario Draghi will never be reprimanded for any failure or wrongdoing to the Greek people or their economy. They are beyond the reach of accountability. They continue to engage in grey politics, duck issues and play their wild cards when it suits. Their corner is political victory by financial methods; the Federalist strategy.

In response to the IMF scathing report Rhen commented: "Latvia's desire to adopt the euro is a sign of confidence in our common currency. It is further evidence that those who predicted a disintegration of the euro, were indeed behind the curve and simply wrong,"

And he might even be right about that. “Lead on Mac Rhen”

EU Crisis: Debating Europe’s Future #1, The UK Forum

The UK debate on its future role with the EU is begun in earnest. The motion is declared:  "National self-determination better serves UK citizens than further EU supra-nationality and integration.”   Outcomes are judged on the clarity of argument and whether those not already decided are won over.

The following extracts show the trends for this national debate, which in reality is the hothouse focus for a motion affecting the future shape and rule of the EU. This debate is set in the UK for the rest of Europe to decide who the winner will be.

As in most organised debates the speakers present sets of arguments to support their position.

Original article: Daily Telegraph http://tinyurl.com/kdua7a6

First speaker for the motion: (Skeptics) Lord Kalms, Business for Britain. Life president of Dixons plc 

Speakers Corner Hyde Park, London. A place of debate since 1872.

When I joined my father in our first Dixons store in 1948, we would have welcomed with open arms anything that would keep the nations of Europe from fighting. In the short term, the EU and its predecessors achieved just that. Now the European Union is no longer fit for purpose.

The British people deserve a referendum on our continued relationship with Brussels and, the way the politics is going on this issue, we should get one.

Like London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, I’d like to see the EU taken back to a trading relationship that promotes rather than inhibits commerce with the rest of the world.

At this crucial juncture the Eurozone is still in crisis. EU institutions are publishing new plans for further integration. There is no better time for the Prime Minister to put his vision for Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Those on the wrong side of this debate would have you believe that the main change needed is to deepen the single market, thereby boosting the competitiveness of Britain and Europe as a whole. That this should be their only means of achieving that end is narrow-minded and unimaginative.

  

Brussels is seeking more “one size fits all” approach to regulation. This is doing so much to prolong the economic crisis. This approach is just another example of the EU sticking fingers in its ears in the pursuit of an outdated philosophy.

It’s time Brussels acknowledged that “ever closer union” is not in the interest of all EU member states.

The make-up of business and industry varies hugely across member states. There must be a more effective mechanism for governments to stand up for national interests in a particular sector affected by EU regulations.

Equally, national parliaments – which are naturally better placed to represent the concerns of their home-grown industries – need to be far closer to EU decision-making, rather than handing the reins of power to unelected civil servants and to MEPs.

If there are laws written in Strasbourg that harm the UK, then Government should have a red card (veto) so that the UK can stay well clear!

In Britain, what Business for Britain is doing for the debate on the EU – as it was on the euro – is push authentic business voices to the fore and let people hear the real problems that the EU is responsible for. The majority of the business community is no longer content to sit on the sidelines while the EU today is the cause of more unrest and infighting than it solves.

It is time for change; either Brussels makes it, or we do.     

Original article: Daily Telegraph http://tinyurl.com/lwytdjd

First speaker against the motion: (Europhiles) Sir Andrew Cahn. World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Europe. Vice-chairman, Nomura. 

Jim (Big Jim) Larkin, trade unionist, speaks in Dublin 1913.
"The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise."
100 years on Revolutia Continua. To be EU or not to be EU. 

We are often told that it is inconceivable that European countries would fight among themselves. Indeed, those who disparage the EU tend to take its peace for granted, or say it has little to do with the EU.

My father left Germany hastily in 1933 to becoming  a refugee overnight. His family went to Spain and was subsumed by its civil war. He left for London, but was on the move again just as the Blitz was starting, his future wife sent to Canada for her own safety.

Because of the volatility of my parents’ lives, I grew up aware that peace, stability and a secure society are not givens, nor can they be assumed – or even expected. They have to be worked for and won in every generation.

The Balkan states experienced the unpredictability that characterised the 1930s and 1940s.

That is why they want to join the EU, a supranational authority, with a culture of interchange of peoples and goods and values. The EU is a guarantor of peace more than any number of politicians assuring us that they have peaceful intentions. Britain is safer because of the EU.

Nationalism and Populism is increasing in many European Union countries. They talk about a dislike of foreigners in their country, glorifying the nation state and how its history is better and bolder. These are the things which can lead nations into war.

Not only is EU peace taken for granted, but also the prosperity it has generated.

Britain has not found it easy to penetrate emerging markets. We will not suddenly find that their doors open to us just because we have left the EU. The illusion is to think that splendid isolation in a global world is actually a workable strategy. We live in an interconnected world where Little England or Imperial Britain has no place.

The City of London changed from being an airless, old boys’ club to being a global powerhouse because foreigners flooded in with new energy, new ideas and a new openness.

If you can eat well in London, if you can find world-beating music, dance, design and film, it is in part because young Europeans full of vitality, ideas and talent come to our country to make a living and do something exciting.

The EU provided the framework which changed our society (United Kingdom) beyond all recognition over the past 50 years.

The flow of people, capital, opinions and energy from our EU partners has helped to make us cosmopolitan, sophisticated and competitive in a global marketplace. An isolated Britain did not make this happen.

Closing our doors, our shores and our minds to the Continent’s efforts to design the future will marginalise us. The final benefit of the EU with the UK is a political structure which involves us in designing the future of our region.

Britain has been a leader in Europe for centuries. We should not relegate ourselves to camp follower. It is the sceptics who lack ambition for Britain.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The speaker for the motion clearly focuses on some benefits of direct action in business decisions which affect the country and, ultimately its citizens. He asserts correctly the mood of the audience as unsure of Brussels strategies.

The Speaker against the motion has concentrated on the terrible past and the fear factor of rising dissent and isolation. This merits the question is fear the main component holding his argument.

As one who was a correspondent during the Balkan wars I remember it was the UK & Americans who stopped the War, not the EU.

So is the EU the solution or the problem as the first speaker suggests. It is clear from this part of the debate the EU is both as the second speaker points out.

Verdict: All square