ThunderDragon Blog

It appears that finally common sense has prevailed:

An indefinite opt-out has been agreed by European MPs in Strasbourg to allow the continued use of the mile for roads, the pint for draught beer, cider and bottled milk, and the ounce for precious metals.

Other items, such as fruit and vegetables, can also be sold using imperial measures, as long as traders use “dual labelling” by supplying metric units alongside traditional pounds and ounces. (The Telegraph)

Europe is not and cannot be homogeneous. The history of areas cannot just be discarded. And it would seem that the EU is finally learning of these very simple facts.

The pint is the perfect size for beer/lager, and what difference does it make if vegetables are sold in pounds and ounces or grammes and kilogrammes? The same size is the same price either way. And he use of miles is so ingrained that the tansfer to kilometres would be both stupid and massively costly, with the replacement of every single speed sign and the reprogramming of every single speed camera in the UK, not to mention the inevitable confusion over car speedometers…

The EU should completely stop trying to make us all the same and instead understand that differences between people exist, and always will.

As I wrote back in June when Ireland voted NO! to the constitution Lisbon Treaty:

If the EU force Ireland to vote again - as they did last time over the Nice treaty - then they just show themselves to be disgusting anti-democrats. And if they try, the Irish people should refuse to vote.

And what is happening now? They’re going to make the Irish have another referendum.

It is disgusting. The EU will only accept one answer, and appear perfectly happy to make the people vote again and again until they get the “right” answer - ie. the answer they want.

The worst thing is that it has been only six months since the Irish voted against ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Why should they have to vote again?

Yes, it is democratic to hold referendums, but it is undemocratic to refuse to accept the result of them. The Irish - the only people in the EU to actually get to vote on the Lisbon Treaty - said no. The EU should accept that the Lisbon Treaty is dead as a parrot, because we the people have said so.

The EU have officially adopted an anthem - Betthoven’s Ode to Joy - and flag, as yet another step towards claiming sovereignty.

Supporters say that this is part of sending “a political message to our citizens”. Yes, it does - that the EU is hell-bent on becoming a sovereignty all of itself, no matter what we the people think; that the EU considers itself to be a real political being and that it deserves our respect without doing anything to deserve it.

Proponents - such as the Lib Dems - claim that opponents to this are guilty of “petty nationalism”. ‘Fraid not. Instead, we don’t believe that the EU has any democratic legitimacy to make thekind of decisions it does and definitely not to impose them on us. We do not believe that the EU has any claim on sovereignty [And no, the European Parliament doesn't make the EU democratic].

Very few people have had the opportunity to vote on the EU. I certainly haven’t.

I won’t ever stand for the Ode to Joy or salute their flag. No matter what.

UPDATE: Sit down in a comfy seat and watch this video of the “EU National Anthem” [hat-tip Mike Rouse].

European Parliament and English local council elections are to be held on the same day - 4 June 2009.

Good.

Of course there is always the argument that Labour has done this in order to save face, and not lose two elections inside four weeks. This would, of course, minimise the damage that they would face, having only to defend bad results - and work out how to claim that it was actually a victory - on one occasion, rather than two.

However, even if this is Labour’s motive I still support it, as it will encourage a higher turnout - hence more democratic legitimacy - and cut the costs of having two polling days so close together.

In fact, to hold them on separate days so close togther would be the height of stupidity.

The government has now formally ratified the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty. In doing this, they have sidestepped the courts, and shoved two fingers in the direction of the British people.

We wanted to vote on it, and successfully stalled ratification. But the government have now gone on anyway, despite their being a hearing today on whether Stuart Wheeler may appeal the original decision. Hopefully the government’s action of ratification - which could be said to be holding the court of the UK in contempt - works in Wheeler’s [and our] favour.

Brown’s action is also dismissive of the people of Ireland - the only people in the EU to get a chance to vote on the treaty - who voted no. At the same time, Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU Presidency, is declaring that Ireland must vote again - because they gave the “wrong” answer - aka the one with whom he disagrees.

It is disgusting that such actions are taking place. By saying that the Irish should vote again, rather than accepting the will of the people, the EU destroys any and every claim that they have to being a democratic institution.

“We The People” is a column written for the Wardman Wire. This blog post can also be seen here.

The attitude of politicians today to democracy can so well be summed up by the cartoon below, by Peter Brookes in the Times.

All for democracy - except where it might adversely affect them and what they want. Screw the people! Democracy is for the politicians!

There are two main areas in which democracy is taking a battering at the moment - Zimbabwe and the European Union. Neither of which are exactly strangers to this.

The difference between the two is as much as anything all in the appearance: Mugabe deploys violence and force in order to ensure that he stays in power; the European Union bureaucracy deploys “diplomacy”. Both ignore what we the people - the ones from whom they are supposed to draw their power through the support of - want.

Zimbabwe

The people of Zimbabwe want the MDC to control the parliament and Morgan Tsvangirai as President. Yet Mugabe declares that he will “go to war” before he would let Tsvangirai take over as President.

So he simply doesn’t care what the result of the presidential run-off would have been, had their actually been an opposition candidate. He doesn’t care about democracy, just about having power. Even the UN have declared that any Zimbabwean poll cannot be free and fair.

In the end, there is nothing that we can do about Zimbabwean democracy. Only the other African leaders can stop Mugabe and free the people of Zimbabwe from tyranny. Just calling for the poll to be delayed is not good enough by a very very long shot. The very principles of democracy need to be re-established.

European Union

Then we come to the European Union. This body suffers a democratic deficit nigh on as large as Zimbabwes, with the elected element having so very little power indeed. They are going to continue ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, despite it having been rejected by the Irish people.

The only people who got to vote on the Lisbon Treaty voted against it. Whilst every other country decided to press ahead and not bother asking their electorate what they thought but ratify it by parliament instead, Ireland asked the people. And they said no. Yet the EU don’t and won’t accept “no” for an answer, and appear to expect the referendum to be held again, like they did with Nice. If they do, they will destroy any claim that they ever had to being democratic.

In the UK, ratification was successfully stalled through legal action by Stuart Wheller who said that we the people had a “legitimate expectation” to be able to vote on Lisbon. But that has been lost - but hope still rests on an appeal, however slim that chance may be.

The EU is no a democratic institution. As the famous statment goes, it would not meet it’s own democratic criteria to join itself. And that goes quite some way to demonstrate the doublethink that surrounds and permeates it.

Conclusion

Democracy today is not democracy as it should be. It doesn’t meet the ideological requirements of democracy or even the practical requirements in Zimbabwe and the EU. The cry of “democracy!” spills from the mouths of all politicians, yet few ever actually do anythign about the issues in their own backyards. It is always someone else who is lacking in it; never themselves.

I am the first to admit that democracy is unlikely to be perfect in every, or indeed any, case. But these two examples are some of the worst in the world today - dictatorship under the banner of democracy.

“We The People” is a column written for the Wardman Wire. This blog post can also be seen here.

It’s almost like the impossible has been achieved.

Gordon Brown has said that “ratification will not take place… until we have the judgement” of the High Court on whether a referendum is required.

Lord Justice Richards was launched an attack on the government’s actions in taking the treaty through both Houses of Parliament - with a lack of opposition from the Lib Dems in one and active connivance in the other - saying:

The court is very surprised that the government apparently proposes to ratify, while the claimant’s challenge to the decision not to hold a referendum on ratification is before the court.

The court expects judgement to be handed down next week. The defendants are invited to stay their hand voluntarily until judgement.

And had Brown not stayed his hand over the formal and final ratification of the treaty/Constitution he would have invited Stuart Wheeler, the man behind the court battle, to seek an injunction to prevent it.

So Brown isn’t postponing formal ratification because he wants to know what the courts will say, but because he doesn’t want the utter humiliation of being told to stop what he’s doing.

Democracy really does seem to be taking a huge battering at the moment.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe is proclaiming that Morgan Tsvangirai will never lead the country - and that he will take the country in to civil war to prevent it. The Opposition leader, who gained more votes than Mugabe in the April presidential elections, has been detained numerous times whilst on the campaign trail.

There can be no free and fair elections in Zimbabwe at the moment. Mugabe must be removed from his position. If he wins the presidential election, he would have done so by intimidation. He makes it impossible for a free and fair election to be held.

Secondly, in one place that we just expect democracy to be ignored - the EU. Who are going to continue ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, despite it having been rejected by the Irish people.

What are they going to do? Make the Irish people vote again like over Nice? They’re not ruling it out.

So I say this to the EU: No means no. Accept it. You have no choice. Or at least you would, if you actually believed in demcracy and the rule of the people. The people have told you to eff-off. Do so.

Today, we all own the people of Ireland a huge debt of gratitude. For they have voted against the Lisbon Treaty!

Ireland is the only one of the 27 EU member states have actualy put it to a popular vote. Theya re the only ones who actually asked the people what they want. And the people said no.

This should now be the end of the Lisbon Treaty. This should now be the end of the continuing sweeping up of national powers into an undemocratic suprantional institution. If the statement of the French Prime Minister is true, of course:

If the Irish people decide to reject the treaty of Lisbon, naturally, there will be no treaty of Lisbon.

If the EU force Ireland to vote again - as they did last time over the Nice treaty - then they just show themselves to be disgusting anti-democrats. And if they try, the Irish people should refuse to vote.

The Lisbon Treaty has been rejected by the only ordinary people who were given the choice. The constitution Treaty is not wanted. It must be retired, in full. With no little bits brought in through the back door as normal business.

It is not wanted. It must now be discarded and shredded.

The only appearance it should ever make again is in the history books, as a defeated attempt to remove the power from the people.

I mean seriously. They’re elected to do a job. To represent the people. Whether that be in Westminster, Bruseels/Strasbourg, Holyrood, the Senedd, or even at the local town hall.

So why do they keep fucking fiddling their expenses?! They get paid to do a job. If they don’t think that they get paid enough and want more money, then they can go into the private sector and try their luck. But what they shouldn’t do is follow the examples of Derek Conway and Giles Chichester.

David Cameron is absolutely correct in his statement to say:

Giles Chichester is right to stand down as leader of our MEPs to prepare a full explanation of how his office is funded. Just as I expect our MPs to adhere to the highest standards, so must our MEPs. The tax-paying public have a right to know how their money is being spent and politicians have a duty to ensure it is spent properly.

But those words now need to be followed up with actions. Since both of the main expenses scandals have involed Conservative politicians, the Conservative Party must take the lead in ensuring that such actions are stopped.

As such, the Conservative Party should publish a monthly audit of all expenses claimed by Conservative MPs and MEPs, with explanations for the claims from the politicians. To ensure that, in future, all Tory politicians are completely in the clear over their expenses.

To show that he is committed to following pretty words with string action, Cameron must implent this without delay. And MPs who refuse to comply should lose the whip, and new candidates selected in their constituencies.

By doing this, the Conservatives will shame the other parties and Parliament itself and, with any luck, cause Parliament to take up the baton and produce this for all MPs.