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Posted: 31-05-2005 09:57 Post subject:

C’mon people, Shadow has a point, here we are, trying to get some momentum going for a thread that shows Europe as it really is, and we’re all here having a frikkin tea-party about whether this land mass we’re floating on is a continent, a subcontinent or A N other. Jeez

Poster 1: The landmass of Europe is technically a “subcontinent” – more tea?
Poster 2: Please, two sugars. How then, historically can this geographical anomaly be explained? Pass the ginger snaps.
Poster 3: *passing gingersnaps*. Oh that’s easily explained – Eratosthenes committed an error a priori etc.

Come on, get with the programme! I’ll start and then someone, somewhere must have some dirt to dig. Christ, what about Berlusconi? Surely someone can find an article about that corrupt bastard?

The real reason that our Gallic cousins voted “non” in the referendum on Europe is quite simple.

The enormous, wasteful juggernaut that the modern EU parliament has become is focussed totally in the wrong direction. When having to make hard decisions about enforcing military action against brutal dictatorships, the European community stand shoulder-to-shoulder. No wait, that’s not right is it? Let me starts again.

When having to make hard decisions about enforcing action against brutal shopkeepers selling goods in Imperial measures, the European community stand shoulder-to-shoulder. A rather depressing example below:

“On 6 January 2005, Essex butcher Dave Stephens marked the fifth anniversary of being the first British trader to receive a Trading Standards infringement notice for trading in pounds and ounces. The occasion was marked by visits by press and TV who were invited to Dave's shop to hear how he had resisted 1,827 days of local authority pressure to convert to metric.”

Europe is a joke – Brussels brings out diktat after diktat, that our continental allies pay lip service to and then totally ignore. French Lamb-burning, Spanish fishing in UK territorial waters, German beef-banning. All these ignominies have been foisted on us, glorious Albion. When our foreign office complains to the EU much shuffling of papers can be heard. Many throats are cleared. But, in the unlikely event action is taken, this action never proves to be effective.

The idea of a Europe that allows trade freely across the borders of it’s member states, that encourages a competitive market, that has a unified voice over global crises. All these aspirations are laudable. But somewhere along the way we’ve got bogged down with how straight bananas are allowed to be. It’s a crying shame, but when you’ve got arch-shysters like Kinnock involved in the Brussels “dream team”, what do you expect?

Posted: 31-05-2005 10:12 Post subject:

Quite right.

I remember the Spitting Image sketch of yore on what Euro MPs do, the gist of which was:

"He goes to Brussels, then he goes to Strasbourg, then he goes to the lavatory, then he goes back to Brussels, then he goes "Blah Blah Blah Blah" about sod all for a few years at our expense.

So remember, voting for your Euro MP is nearly as important as going to the shops to buy kitchen paper!"

Any more ginger-snaps?

Posted: 31-05-2005 12:39 Post subject:

I think the european parliament is a very advanced democratic experiment.

It´s become a corrupt irrelevant talking shop in just 30 years.

The US and UK legislatures needed 100s of years of democratic evolution to reach the same level.

Posted: 31-05-2005 12:45 Post subject:

Posted: 31-05-2005 12:49 Post subject:

Did it exist before we joined?

If a tree fell in the woods, and no one british was there, would it make a sound?

Posted: 31-05-2005 13:05 Post subject:

Posted: 31-05-2005 13:15 Post subject:

This is awesome. You guys are taking a stab at our concept of united states--and failing miserably, I might add--whilst we Yanks toy with Empire. And are blowing it.

puts on pith helmet and picks up cup of tea

Oh dear. Bad show, I'm afraid. We liberate the savages and this is the thanks we get? It won't do.

Posted: 31-05-2005 13:17 Post subject:

Posted: 01-06-2005 00:08 Post subject:

Well I live and work in an agricultral area, and believe me most British farmers arent fans of the EEC. Everyone thinks that farmers live the life of riley beacuse of them, but its not true, at least not round my way Sad

. The only farmers who nake it good through the common market are the French ones, and who runs the agricultral comission? Yes its ALWAYS the French Sad

.

Posted: 01-06-2005 00:18 Post subject:

Posted: 01-06-2005 00:41 Post subject:

Posted: 01-06-2005 07:49 Post subject:

"Christ, what about Berlusconi? Surely someone can find an article about that corrupt bastard? "

No shortage, but where's the comparison? His involvement in the invasion of other countries has been minor, he doesn't have prison camps carefully located to be outside of jurisdiction, isn't harboring terrorists or making a big impact on Kyoto. If he rattled a sabre nobody would hear. (And who's scared of Italian sabres anyway?).
Besides, Liverpool won Very Happy

Posted: 01-06-2005 08:04 Post subject:

Posted: 01-06-2005 08:25 Post subject:

The biggest problem with the EU isn't any form of 'Empire building' which seems to be the greatest prompt for anti-US posts. The EU is made up of many nations, each with their own interests, political agenda and bias. The theoretical raison d'etre of the European Union is to establish common ground in finance, trade and legislation. This is nearly impossible given the number of states which are suddenly becoming European enough to get their snouts in the trough. The mere fact that small countries cream off large amounts of cash put up by the larger member states, the larger member states are in constant competition to get the biggest slice of the cake and that the legislation is handled by bureocrats with a reputation (deservedly or not) for corruption, inefficiency and bloody bone-idleness means that the likelyhood for the EU forming into a cohesive, political force to imprint on the rest of the world is minimal.

So ... is this thread a slagging off of the EU as a potential superpower? Or is it merely the opportunity to slag off individual nationalities of the EU? I'd like to know so I can get my irrational bigoted slurs aimed in the right direction.

Posted: 01-06-2005 11:19 Post subject:

Europe has a corrupt warmonger for a president!

Tony is EU president, isn't he?