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That is a great OP thank you. I'll be voting because I never miss a chance to do so. Currently my UK region is represented by an actual fascist, among others, so that's great. He probably won't win reelection but, while I haven't seen any regional polling, it's a safe bet he'll be replaced by a UKIP. I'll be voting straight ticket Green if I can, holding my nose for labour if the Greens aren't fielding enough candidates. Thanks to this thread I'm now going to research who is standing in my region.
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Apr 12, 2014 14:49
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YF-23 posted:A stronger EU would, by consequence of greater responsibilities, be more accountable and under greater pressure to ensure its viability. It's the present-day half-assed poo poo institutions that make the EU a tragedy/farce. Doesn't the Euro crisis show the opposite to be true? Increased power and influence in national affairs has been met with less accountability if anything.
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Nov 2, 2014 13:34
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YF-23 posted:Yeah, but that's what I was talking about when I was talking about half-assed poo poo. The EU can do some things, but in the end the crisis targets are the ones left with the responsibility of cleaning up the mess. When poo poo goes even worse, it's the country's fault, not the EU's, so the EU does not feel pressure to work more proactively to fix its broken institutions that lead to the crisis in the first place. The elite of the EU's response to the Eurozone crisis hasn't been half-assed, it has been masterful. Oh granted it hasn't really dealt with the problems themselves but as you say it has very effectively shifted the blame to the victims and that was their aim. Given these same elites would be in charge of any efforts to create a US of E it is very likely blame passing would entrenched within the structure of the new nation. As with any neo-liberal project the risks would be the responsibility of those on the bottom, the rewards belonging solely to those at the top. Now of course if there was a strong popular pan-EU movement to create a fair and equitable new nation there would certainly be a chance the new powers it got would be balanced by similar responsibilities but there isn't such a movement. What the UK is doing with its obstruction and general awfulness is putting a spanner in the works of the elites who want to create a new nation on the same inequitable terms as the Eurozone crisis. Seeing the back of the UK would be cathartic but it wouldn't make the EU a structurally better place.
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Nov 2, 2014 14:27
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YF-23 posted:A USE would by definition have those responsibilities, that is what centralisation of power means. The only way it can pass the blame and responsibility to the member states is with the current setup, which is decentralised enough to not do that. This is the EU those people want. Any further centralisation limits that. It would have the responsibilities the framers of its constitution gave it. It is eminently possible for the current elites to grab even more power for themselves, as they did with the Eurozone crisis, without accepting any further responsibility. The European Fiscal Compact did not bring about any further democracy but did EU elites even greater control of member state economies. There is simply no evidence that greater EU power consequentially results in greater responsibility.
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Nov 2, 2014 14:41
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Cat Mattress posted:So the short and sweet is that if the EU wants to actually progress, it needs to boot out both the UK and Germany? A return to the original intent of a French Empire?
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Nov 20, 2014 16:20
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So what is the most likely outcome for Greece if SYRIZA wins? Collapse of the Greek economy followed by a Grexit and then a EU backed military coup with Golden Dawn as the excuse? Or will Golden Dawn be allowed to take over to encourage the other periphery economies to stay in line?LemonDrizzle posted:There have been several high profile instances of tax evasion and avoidance by wealthy individuals in the UK that have lead to the perpetrators being named and shamed in the press, forced to pay back what they owe, and in some cases driven out of their jobs. Eh, it is very much socially acceptable among people who owe taxes of 6+ digits that they and their peers don't pay tax. Celebrities have sometimes had to pay their fair share because they're reliant on public goodwill for their wealth but other wealthy people, even public figures like Lord Ashcroft and Philip Green, are able to function just fine while avoiding massive amounts of tax. Then there's the collective shrug from the political class in response to the sweetheart deals Dave Hartnett, then head of HM Revenue and Customs, gave multiple international corporations and his generally friendly relations with many organisations who would be HM Revenue and Custom's most ardent opponents in tax gathering. That's without mentioning broader stuff like the elite's attitude to the expenses scandal and the fact they're now claiming even more expenses than they did before.
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Dec 30, 2014 17:14
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To step away from the discussion over whether basic empathy for Greek people is a good thing for a moment, a group of prominent European Jewish leaders have seized the opportunity presented by the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo to call for a range of new Laws across Europe: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/jewish-leaders-europe-legislation-outlawing-antisemitismquote:European Jewish leaders, backed by a host of former EU heads of state and governments, are to call this week for pan-European legislation outlawing antisemitism amid a sense of siege and emergency feeding talk of a mass exodus of Europe’s oldest ethnic minority. I do find it a bit odd that the Charlie Hebdo attack has somehow become mostly about Jewish people and is indeed being used as grounds to curtail freedom of speech. Regardless the list of things they want outlawed is a mishmash, things like FGM should obviously be illegal while others are much less clear cut, such as the desire to have the burqa banned across Europe. Especially since there seems to be no accompanying request to ban the Sheitel or other hair coverings used by Orthodox Jews (nor is there any talk of making male circumcision illegal...). However the most worrying aspect has to be the call for outlawing of "anti-semitism" across Europe and the creation of the crime of "Group Libel" as well as the general call for curtailment of free speech to protect religion. Given the consistent attempts by Zionists to conflate Zionism with Judaism there is a strong likelihood such a push, using the cover of a recent terrorist attack, will be used to gag and criminalise criticism of Israel as much as possible in a similar manner to efforts in America to make BDS campaigns illegal. To my knoweldge, at least in Western Europe, existing hate crime laws provide adequate protection for Jewish victims of persecution already. On a lesser note it may also be used to undermine animal rights campaigners across Europe who are trying to get the legal exceptions from animal cruelty laws for Kosher and Halal butchers revoked.
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Jan 25, 2015 19:38
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Adar posted:"Somehow" The attack on Charlie Hebdo was clearly the main objective of the terrorists with the Jewish supermarket being a lamentable target of opportunity afterwards. The JDL are an extreme right wing group who are considered a terrorist organisation by the FBI and the French government are actively moving to ban them. The "riot" you speak of was the aftermath of a pro-Israeli "march" the JDL had organised. The Muslim populations of most European countries face far more prejudice and harassment from governments and fellow citizens. Yet the message to them is that they need to integrate and deal with it. Jewish Europeans are not being extraordinary renditioned to US torture camps, they aren't being threatened with having their citizenship revoked, they are not having their religious symbols outlawed, they are not having their loyalty to their country questioned publicly and they are not facing overwhelming police scrutiny and disproportionate rates of incarceration. The use of Police outside of Schools in Britain, France and Belgium is far more likely to be security theatre. Especially in light of the fact the magazine had already received multiple threats AND the terrorists who attacked them were well known to the police and yet authorities failed to stop the attack. To deflect from this embarrassing situation the authorities are going all out to be seen to protect a minority group that is overwhelmingly seen sympathetically. Xoidanor posted:Yeah anti-semitism just loving explodes every time Israel & Palestine flares up. Swedish Uppdrag Granskning recently did a sting of sorts where they had a reporter wear a kippah, a davids star around his neck and a hidden camera while walking through the streets of Malmö. The results were something to say the least. This is the outcome of Israel trying as hard as possible to associate Israel's actions with all Jews. When Jewish people outside of Israel face the backlash to Israeli warcrimes and crimes against humanity they are likely to feel alienated from the population of the country the live in and be more likely to emigrate to Israel. Jewish people living outside of Israel suffer from the myth Israel represents all Jews, sadly Israel benefits from this and so they're likely to continue screwing their co-religionists over. Lagotto posted:It has nothing to do with those nasty plotting Jews abusing Charlie Hebdo for their evil plans, or whatever your personal views are, since I have no idea why you would even want to bring this up in this thread. (Hint: you reek of anti-semitism, might want to watch that, it's a nasty quality) The European politics thread is the appropriate place for discussion of a concerted efforts to harmonise laws across all EU member states. ReV VAdAUL fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jan 25, 2015 |
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Jan 25, 2015 20:29
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Lagotto posted:Yep, shameless anti-semite spotted. Substantiate your smears dude.
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Jan 25, 2015 20:34
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Lagotto posted:You barge into a thread about EU politics with a completely unrelated insane rant about them evil plotting Jews. Case closed. A move by a group to implement legislation across all EU member states is entirely pertinent to a thread about European politics. The move is being announced later this week, it is at the very least pertinent to recent events. Also it is clear you can't substantiate your claims, you're attempting to label genuine worries about abuse of the term anti-semitism to block criticism of Israel, such as attempts to undermine BDS in America (this instance also includes an attempt to make it part of a Free trade deal that would also apply to EU member states), as blanket anti-semitism. ReV VAdAUL fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jan 25, 2015 |
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Jan 25, 2015 20:42
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Incidentally, Meir Kahane, the founder of the JDL and a terrorist, had close ties with Joe Colombo the Mafia don and founder of the Italian American Civil Rights league, a legitimate front for the Mafia in the same way the JDL was a legitimate front for right wing terrorism. On one occasion Joe Colombo bailed out 11 members of the JDL. There are many worthwhile and important Jewish organisations across the world but the JDL are absolutely not among them and a terrible group to mention in relation to real prejudice against Jews.
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Jan 25, 2015 20:52
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Lagotto posted:You mean an article from The Guardian can't be antisemetic? I posted a link to the framework that was published in 2013. It is a very broad piece on tolerance and is in no way specifically about curtailing anti-semitism, as it is being framed as by both The Guardian and ReV. I do not like it, but the framing and the timing of bringing this into this thread is beyond suspect. But think what you want to think. Suspect why? You are throwing out strawmen and negative framing but no actual proof I am in any way an Anti-Semite. Either provide evidence or apologise, I absolutely resent being accused of anti-semitism.
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Jan 25, 2015 20:54
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Lagotto posted:I have already told you why multiple times.The framework is not specifically about anti-semitism at all, or part of a Jewish lobby as you have been stating. Jewish leaders will be promoting this document at an event commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz next week. The Guardian and myself are entirely reasonable in highlighting that this piece will be closely associated with specifically preventing Anti-Semitism and that it is strongly at risk of being exploited by those who wish to silence criticism of Israel. You have again failed to provide any justification for your accusation I am Anti-Semitic. You have also failed to provide any justification for your smear that the piece has nothing to do with the European politics thread and was posted solely out of some kind of rabid Anti-Semitism, given the document was drafted at the behest of the EU and is hoped to be implemented by all EU member states.
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Jan 25, 2015 21:28
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Cat Mattress posted:Yes because a prosperous Greece would bring about the next Hitler, and so time-travelers from the future have told us it's necessary to make sure they live in the most abject poverty possible. Come now, Brüning's policies worked wonders for Weimar Germany, they were positively transformational.
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Feb 5, 2015 10:58
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YF-23 posted:Even if we fail we can rest easy knowing we have brought a true revolution in the fashion of politics in Europe. Only the super-rich are allowed to dress down at public events.
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Feb 5, 2015 12:38
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DOCTOR ZIMBARDO posted:What is the mechanism for triggering new elections, or is there simply going to be a putsch? SYRIZA would certainly be wise to keep a very close eye on the Defence Minister.
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Feb 5, 2015 13:08
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GaussianCopula posted:Labor mobility is a good thing, why would you want to get rid of it? The lack of labor mobility is one of the bigger problems in the EU. If you want to compare it to America, if Texas is having a boom because of oil and Michigan at the same time is having a really terrible time, people move from Michigan to Texas for work, which reduces the unemployment in Michigan. I don't see how that's a bad thing. The
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Feb 5, 2015 20:37
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GaussianCopula posted:I <3 my government: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKZn7OIbRMQ There's the odd German law in recent history that diverged dramatically from anything one would consider moral.
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Feb 23, 2015 21:13
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 07:54 |
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Greece is going to be destroyed pour encourager les autres to follow the master plan no matter what they do, these negotiations showed that. It is incredibly depressing and while it would be cathartic to say they should Grexit to do a bit of damage to Germany on the way down it is millions of people's lives being destroyed either way.
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Feb 23, 2015 21:30
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