Imbued With Arrogance

Some may have noted that UKIP this weekend have come under heavy fire from the Conservatives, an ill-disguised act of desperation by a party who are worried about Thursday's local elections. Of course if the main parties truly wanted to negate the UKIP threat then actually listening to the voters might help. But that would be too inconvenient.

In true Cameronesque style though it looks like the Tory tactics in the main are backfiring. It is rather amusing, and informative, however to watch the establishment squirm as they perceive a real threat to their comfortable status quo.

With that in mind, we note that the so-called buffoon Boris Johnson has waded in. I've made my feelings clear about him before. He's not a man to be underestimated in terms of power and ambition - the facade of buffoonery may have fooled Ken Livingstone during the London Mayoral elections - but it shouldn't fool us. In this we have further evidence in his latest article in the Telegraph - effectively titled "c'mon along chaps everything is all ok:

[Farage]’s a blooming Conservative, for heaven’s sake; and yet he’s in our constituencies, wooing our audiences, nicking our votes, and threatening to put our councillors out of office.

Behind the floppy blond hair we have assertions of "our constituencies", "our audiences", "our votes", "our councillors". None once does it occur to him (or does he care) that it is the electorates' votes, the electorates' constituencies, the electorates' councillors. I mean how dare other parties "steal Tory votes?" Boris Johnson articulating exactly the arrogance of the Tories, and indirectly also of the establishment. And he does it because he can.

Perhaps the Tories think he might make a better replacement for Cameron but if even he does become leader, for the rest of us it will be more of the same. We need another way.

The EU Is Only Half Finished

As Richard North observes, that the pro-EU Guardian has featured prominently on its front page a Eurobarometer survey which is telling us that public confidence in the European Union has fallen to historically low levels, is of significance.

Not surprisingly there is much hand wringing within that publication of the "fundamental questions of the EU's democratic legitimacy" and what to do about it. But as any serious student of the EU knows democratic legitimacy was never on the table; removing democracy (or preventing "populism" if we are to use the negative redefinition of the term democracy) was always the intention of Jean Monnet - a man who was never elected to public office. The Guardian is thus discovering that the lack of public mandate - or populism - is coming back to haunt the EU in spades.

Conversely though, despite that the EU is not democratic in the sense its Monnet-inspired bureaucrats are not elected, it does not tell member states what to do. As a consequence I'm often dismayed by a significant part of the Eurosceptic movement in their arguments. EU member states choose to belong, they choose to participate, obey and they can choose to leave. That it is the "4th Reich" and the "EUSSR" are easy, lazy and inaccurate criticisms - the truth is the EU cannot force a nation state to do anything; the UK has not been reduced to pleading "please Sir can I have some more?", instead the UK chooses to be in this position. 

And one of the fundamental reasons that the EU cannot force the UK, or any other member state, what to do is that it is not yet, as a project, complete. While the EU has steadily hollowed out member states' institutions, it has not yet fully grasped the baton of power itself to the extent in most cases that there is no-one in charge and no-one in overall control. It's still in a transitional phase, a halfway house where international and supranational EU bodies are at odds with each other, neither one nor the other. Nation state governments have been undermined, yet there is nothing functional to replace it. It's a theme I've touched on before.

One is reminded of Christopher Booker from 2009 when writing about the flaws of the theory of evolution. I don't intend in this piece to either agree or disagree with evolution but merely to highlight that this paragraph from Booker's article which makes for a perfect metaphor of the current state of the EU:

Years ago, a good illustration of this was Attenborough himself claiming to 'prove’ Darwin’s theory by showing us a mouse and a bat, explaining how one evolved into the other. He seemed oblivious to the obvious point that, as the mouse’s forelegs evolved by minute variations to wings, there must have been a long period when the creature, no longer with properly functioning legs but as yet unable to fly, was much less 'adapted to survive’ than it had been before.

It makes for a wonderful analogy that can be applied to the progress of the EU; a project that has removed the "properly functioning legs" from its member states but as yet has not acquired the wings to enable it to fly, making it less adapted to survive. Nothing illustrates this better than the farce that is the Euro - a currency that needs political union to succeed but is unable to complete that very objective thus leaving it in limbo.

Such a mess arises from the strategy of integration by salami tactics and stealth - the implementation of the Monnet method - a tacit admission from Monnet himself that the project was always flawed. The creation of the European Council in 1974 was another admission of failure. Monnet's frustration by the unwillingness of sovereign nations in giving up their power led to the establishment of the European Council as a mechanism to help "Europe through the difficult transition from national to collective sovereignty" - a process that was understood to be one way only. A process that is still ongoing albeit in fits and starts. Yet by trying to force onto a people an artificial system of government without taking them with you in terms of approval was always going to end in tears.

Ironically this "difficult transition" has led to precisely the kind of disorganization that Monnet hated. Early on in his biography he said:

[My father's] view of mankind was optimistic, but I have not inherited it completely. Quite early in life, events taught me that human nature is weak and unpredictable without rules and institutions.

So it's not suprising he concluded his biograghy thus:

"The sovereign nations of the past can no longer solve the problems of the present: they cannot ensure their own progress or control their own future. And the Community itself is only a stage on the way to the organised world of tomorrow."

So it comes to pass that Monnet who abhorred the concept of the nation state will, via his "pet project", inadvertently reinvigorate nationalism across the EU and who, abhorred the natural somewhat chaotic democratic functions of every day life, will end up leaving behind a complete mess.  If it wasn't so serious, one would be highly amused by the irony.

If Cameron Was Serious...

...he would invoke article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to leave the EU

So says Mr Farage in the Express. It's the only sensible way to exit.

Cameron Admits He Won't Honour An Out Vote In A Referendum

While Cameron basks in the limelight of a "great leader and a great Briton", we find more evidence that Mrs Thatcher he most certainly is not. Whatever one thinks of Mrs Thatcher, one thing never in doubt was she said what she meant and meant what she said. Cameron could not be further away from that principle if he tried.

As has been well documented here and elsewhere, his promise of a referendum on our "relationship" with the European Union is a sham, will be rigged and is not possible. Trying to renegotiate a looser relationship with the EU goes against the very fabric of the organisation.

However there is now a sting in the tail, as noted by Richard North, Cameron has no intention of honouring an out vote in the unlikely event one would occur. In an interview with the Spanish El Pais with the headline quote from Cameron; "The best solution for the UK is to stay in a reformed EU", he was asked the following (via Google translate):

In case of a Yes victory in the referendum that will organize on leaving the EU, would you be willing to withdraw from the Union?

And Cameron's response:

I would not. (No me gustaría)

That Cameron makes such an admission - of willfully ignoring a referendum vote - in a foreign newspaper is revealing. Truly he's the child of Europe, his hero evidently instead is Barroso (EU Commission President):

“They must go on voting until they get it right."

Slightly amazingly "cast-iron" has managed to sink even lower.

No, No, No!

Thatcher Dies

 

Unsurprisingly because she was divisive in life, the news of Thatcher's death is also thus. Those in certain areas of politics seem not to see the irony, in the age of equality, that celebrating an elderly, and ill, lady's death let alone the death of the first female British Prime Minister is inappropriate even nasty. 

I grew up under Thatcher and it was her downfall and the subsequent Tory meltdown over Europe that initiated (largely) my interest in politics. One shouldn't forget though that Thatcher long supported our EU membership, yet conversely to her credit she is the only Prime Minister - post 1973 - to admit that her attitudes and policies towards the EEC/EU were wrong.

What in my view is Thatcher's legacy, among many other things, was that she demonstrated a 'correction'. A correction that was necessary due to the demise of the UK in the 70s. The further a pendulum swings too far one way the more robust the correction has to be to bring things back into balance. Thatcher's correction was against the unions, our current correction is for democracy. In this Mrs Thatcher teaches us some actions are necessary.

Invest In The Eurozone?

While reading in the Telegraph a report of the inept performance that was England last night, one is amused by the adverts that appear underneath (pictured above)

One wonders if it's 5 days early, a Freudian slip by the pro-EU paper or the Telegraph's odd way of mocking the Cypriots?

Unraveling

Perhaps it's weariness on my part or the expectation that it wouldn't be long before others clock Cameron's speech on immigration as the nonsense that it is (and thus do the hard work for me), but I couldn't bring myself to comment on Cameron's latest wheeze.

And unsurprisingly unravel quickly it has:

And

So follows Cameron in a long line of Tories who in spirit is defined by the words of Labour MP Hugh Gaitskell, October 1962:

"...have been indulging in their usual double talk. When they go to Brussels they show the greatest enthusiasm for political union. When they speak in the House of Commons they are most anxious to aver that there is no commitment whatever to any political union."

Cameron's immigration announcement was always bollocks but he's not even good enough to disguise it very well. He is taking the concept of the Peter Principle to a whole new level. As a consequence, as Richard North notes, the rats are now deserting the sinking Tory ship.

As it stands Labour are more than likely to win the General Election in 2015 and we go through the whole charade again - as per Ed Milliband's recent article in The Sun:

And as a Labour Prime Minister, I will act to deal with people’s concerns. We know low-skill immigration has been too high and it should come down. We will put maximum controls on new countries joining the European Union.

Controls can only be put in place for a maximum of 7 years - Labour not quite lying but not telling the whole truth either. The 7 year limit is precisely the issue with Romanians and Bulgarians having their restrictions removed next year - their 7 year term is up.

Unsurprisingly another party had this policy of restricting immigration in 2011 (leaving unsaid that it was for only 7 years) - can you guess which one it was?

And so we go round in circles.

A Power Station Obituary

Today Didcot A will be thrown onto the scrap heap. No longer considered fit for purpose under EU law, it is set to be turned off after 14:00, even though it has many years of life in it yet. Its only job now is a lonely agonising wait for demolition of the cooling towers, chimney and turbine hall. Unhelpfully the closure is at a time when we are being warned of a looming energy crisis.

Odd as it may seem there are mixed emotions locally at its closure. One woman noted on local news that; "I'm sad 'cos it's a landmark innit...?", a view echoed, albeit slightly more elegantly by Didcot Town Council leader Margaret Davies:

“The cooling towers are so large, and the power station has been such a big part of our lives that it’s hard to believe it is not going to be powering away any more.

The cooling towers have been a reassuring sight, a friendly giant, but the closure paves the way for when the cooling towers will be demolished and vanish completely from the skyline.”

A landmark it most certainly is even though it resides as comfortably and inconspicuously in the Oxfordshire countryside as Eric Pickles in a salad bar.

But many memories and fond thoughts. Once I was collared by a motorist as I was walking back from town asking for directions to the power station. My reply of; "take the next left, left again and it will be on your right - you can't miss it" must have been one of the easiest directions I have ever given to a motorist. One can never forget either the windows rattling when it fired up or the conclusions of the environmental survey when you buy a house which noted that there is a power station nearby - as if you haven't noticed.

We remember other quirks also. Despite being called Didcot Power Station, it doesn't actually reside in Didcot, instead in the parish of a village called Sutton Courtney - more well known for the burial place of George Orwell and British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. Rumours have persisted locally for many years that underhand persuasion was used for it not to be called Sutton Courtney power station when it was built.

And despite being voted the third worst eyesore in Britain, it's often forgotten that it won architectural awards when it opened. Designed by the British sculptor Henry Moore - his biggest piece- the cooling towers were positioned in such a way that all six towers could not be seen in their entire completeness from anywhere in Oxfordshire. A clever, yet subtle use of perspective, designed to limit the station's impact on the surrounding environment.

The loss of history and 'be careful what you wish for' reminds us of the Blackburn Meadows Power Station in Sheffield, the two cooling towers which resided next to the M1, and was portrayed in the film The Full Monty, were only demolished 28 years after the power station closed - against much local opposition.

But it's an end of an era, an era that once thought that keeping the lights on was more important than implementing a flawed ideology.

Didcot A leaves behind a wife (Didcot B) and 1000's of children who live on benefits.

No flowers.

The Fatal Flaw

The theft of Cypriots' savings without so much as by your leave is quite jaw dropping in its brazenness. As Zerohedge notes, bank accounts are private property so what has happened is effectively the confiscation of private property - the equivalent of the government driving off with your car on a whim.

Of course the situation is being described as "exceptional and unique", as were the bailouts of Ireland, Portugal, and Greece. A precedent has been set and it's not difficult to envisage that this will happen again (it's a possible trial run) or that contagion, in the form of bank runs, will happen across Europe.

But it's seems to be forgotten among the outrage that our own Government is not adverse to similar actions themselves, only it's called something different.

If you want to raid savings accounts you can call it; quantitative easing, inflation or devaluation of the sterling. Different names but a similar effect. Or confiscate shares without compensation to shareholders that were still trading on the market at 90p at the time as per the nationalisation of Northern Rock. Or raiding dormant accounts. Or indeed bailing out a Eurozone country with taxpayer's money, despite promises to the contrary, but calling it "compensating British troops". When were we consented about this?

The EU's fatal flaw is its openness on the theft, an openness that is necessary because, unlike a successful currency union like the one that exists in the UK, it cannot disguise it via other methods due to the inherent shortcomings of the Euro. It is hamstrung by a flawed currency of its own making. It is being hoisted by its own petard.

However we should not be under any illusions that anything would be any different should we leave without a sea change in democracy at home...