Jean-Claude Juncker has now been formally elected at President of the European Commission by a 422 to 250 margin of victory in the European Parliament. Most Prime Ministers in Europe can only dream of such a wide margin of victory. That vote follows on from his 26 to 2 vote victory in the European Council (made up of national heads of government. And Yet Nigel Farage, leader of England’s UKIP, can only rage at the undemocratic nature of his election.
It is ironic that the most vehement objections to Juncker’s election have come from the UK – a country which has a whole House of Parliament made up of unelected Lords and which has just nominated one of that number – Lord Hill – to be Britain’s next member of the Commission. It seems democracy only becomes an issue when you don’t get your own man appointed through some kind of back room deal. The UK’s ignorance of and contempt for EU institutions has now come to bite it severely in the back-side.
Cameron’s influence in the EU is now at an all time low and will not be helped by his replacement of William Hague by the Eurosceptic Philip Hammond as Foreign Secretary in the current Government reshuffle which also sees a number of other prominant Eurosceptics promoted. When this is combined with the UK’s likely loss of Baroness Ashton’s (another ex-member of the House of Lords) post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, it looks as if the stage is being set for an ever more distant relationship between the EU and UK.
Why anyone in the EU (apart from Ireland) should now be bothered about anything Cameron has to do or say is beyond me. Should Scotland vote for Independence another barrier to England getting it’s own way and departing the EU will have been removed. Northern Ireland’s constitutional status will again be destabilized, and who knows how that will play out – possibly for the better – but it could be a long and painful process. Cameron could yet be known as the Prime Minister who led England to the break-up of the UK. Certainly the EU will not be weakened by his antics.
Can the date for the EU referendum be moved forward? Who does Cameron think he is, a male version of the Iron Lady? Really, the relationship of Britain has always been a special bond (think Tony Blair and the Iraq antics) with the U.S., that should remain intact but not to the detriment of mainland Europe.
With climate change, it will be a natural phenomena that the distance from the British Island to ‘Europe’ will increase, it’s for the better of all parties.
I still can hear the dissatisfaction of General de Gaulle and Dutch minister Joseph Luns to the request of Britain to join the EEC. A disaster in the making.
Cameron is trying to head off UKIP, but my guess is that he will fail and Labour will win the next election. The referendum proposal will then be quietly ditched. Unfortunately a lot of damage has already been done…and the continuation of a semi-detached UK’s involvement in the EU is a wearing prospect…
No link to the inquiry into allegations of a high-level cover-up of child sex abuse which was to be chaired by Baroness Butler Sloss?
Appointing a former judge to chair such a crucial investigation and only a few days later, Baroness Butler Sloss had to resign because of a potential conflict of interest. Her brother was involved as Attorney General Havers in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and the decision surrounding a paedophile ring in Northern Ireland with a link to child abuse at Kincora boys’ home in east Belfast.
Hagues’ stepping down seems odd – especially considering he is still only 53.
○ Foreign Secretary: My priorities are security, economy and Europe
A referendum is not ever going to happen. Never. The chance is too big it will pass. Nor will the UK break up. Scotland will vote no. It is all political drama for the rubes to keep them on tenterhooks. Twenty years from now the UK will still be bitching about the EU and threatening to leave. The Scots will be grumblilng. And the German chancellor will coyly tell the UK to stay because they’re family, loved by all in spite of differences. When the UK joined the EU it was a total basket case. Maybe no other country in the EU has benefited so much from the organization.
Cameron is trying to unite the Eurosceptic and moderate wings of his own party and head off UKIP at the next election. My guess is he will fail (especially if Scotland vote for Independence) and Labour will win the next election. The Referendum proposal will be quietly ditched and the whole wearisome charade of a UK half in the EU will continue ad nauseam.
Out of curiosity, how are the prospects for Scotland’s independence looking these days? I had the understanding that “yes” had been polling behind “no” fairly consistently.
Maybe. But wait until push comes to shove.
Opinion polls have consistently shown a No majority, but it all depends on how motivated people are to actually go out and vote. I am not close to the situation, but my guess is that the Yes voters are more motivated, so the result could be tighter than many people seem to think.
One of the major problems with the British in/out debate is that it ignores the complexities of a lot of things. For instance the two million British ex-pats who legally and non-legally) are resident in France and Spain and who’s interests could be hugely impacted by a Brexit and yet who may not be able to or bother to vote in a British referendum. Many of these too, in my own experience, like to parrot anti-EU propaganda without realizing how much a Brexit could change their lives.
I think it is dangerous to make any assumptions as to what a post Brexit UK might look like. If the exit is rancorous (or if UKIP are part of the Government) UK access to “the common market” could be severely curtailed leading to economic melt-down, huge damage to “the City”, relocation of many UK headquartered firms to other EU states (with Ireland being a possible major beneficiary), forced or voluntary departure of many non-Brits from the UK, return of huge numbers of Brits from other EU countries, de-stabilisation of N. Ireland (whose economic interests are much closer to Ireland/EU), renewed impetus for independence in Scotland, and a sharpening of the class war in England.
Just because it is in few people’s interest for many of these things to happen doesn’t mean they can’t happen once national pride and public hysteria enter the picture and from an EU point of view the whole debacle could serve as a salutary lesson to any other member seeking to leverage an exit threat.
The British establishment has, for many years, successfully deflected British class tensions onto the EU as bogeyman and thus reinforced its own position within Britain. However that does not mean that the rubes – see Hitler, Tea Party et al, won’t become a political force they can’t control with disastrous consequences for (almost) all.