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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (97114)	1/27/2005 8:10:32 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793917

How could they have been this stupid? EU Control Puts Contentious Issue Beyond Debate 27 January, 2005 Michael Howard, the opposition Tory party leader started the unofficial election campaign by tackling the hitherto taboo subject of immigration. At great pains to qualify his detailed proposals for new border controls and to head off the inevitable accusation of racism, the debate was narrowed to within technical lines relating to asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Howard and his party had weathered a storm of left wing political and media convulsions for 24 hours and seemed to be making good ground in the polls when the whole thing came to a farcical halt. Some bureaucrat in Brussels rightly pointed out that the British Government no longer has the right to change asylum policy because according to some obscure and apparently secret treaty, or deal, these rights belong to the European Commission and no longer to national Parliaments. According to the London Evening Standard the Tories endured a night of cold sweats, thinking that it may in fact have been they who signed away the rights when they were in government under John Major. Eventually a government spokesman admitted that it was indeed Tony Blair who signed. Strangely, this seems to have settled it for Howard and Blair who staged a modest, face saving cat-fight in Parliament today, and it seems to be enough for the media as well who are rapidly losing interest. The Times, indeed, does not see fit to mention the European dimension at all. Does this mean that when the real election campaign comes, there will be no place for debate on immigration, in spite of the fact that the subject is among the top issues concerning a majority of people? After all what’s the point in voting for one party or another when they are no longer able, under any circumstance, to change things. How many other areas of Government policy have been passed over to Brussels? Most of them, in fact. Ask any well placed Eurocrat who doesn’t need to maintain the myth of democratic national sovereign states and they will freely and proudly admit that the game is all but over, well before and regardless of ratification of the European constitution. So what is the point of voting at all if whoever is elected is no longer in control of national policy and 90% of all legislation comes from Brussels? One would expect to see better standard of democracy in Iraq. "Ever closer union" is the standard by which everything is measured in the European Union. Not exactly a guarantee liberty. Governments lose legitimacy and credibility when it’s plain that they serve two masters, in this case the people and Brussels. They get their legitimacy from one and their orders from the other. Not a healthy position. Furthermore there is no precedent for national governments taking back power from Brussels: It is a one way street. The Tories' plan to renegotiate certain issues is pure fantasy. Open debate is meaningless when it will not change the outcome. Fritting away democracy is a dangerous game to play. We’ve seen it all before in Europe.

To: LindyBill who wrote (97114)	1/27/2005 9:00:53 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793917

The "Paleos" hope for Bush to fail also. I saw a few minutes of Christie Whitman on TV this morning pushing her book and a web site, mypartytoo.com. Not much at the site. Don't know if this is a legit movement, but it's interesting.