Blair's Government finally attacks Common Agricultural Policy's Morality

Abandoning his own hypocrisy of many years standing, Tony Blair yesterday attacked the subsidising of the wealthy world's farmers at the expense of the third world's long-suffering and starving poor. A report appears in today's Daily Telegraph which is linked from here. The following are brief quotes: Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, said the rich world had a "moral imperative" to achieve trade justice. He called for an end to EU and non-EU agricultural subsidies in which rich nations give their farmers £154 billion a year - 10 times the amount given in aid to Africa..... Mr Blair surprised MPs by declaring publicly that it was his ambition "to get rid of" the Common Agricultural Policy". The question now looms large - what next? For once - with the concurrent six month Presidencies of the Group of Eight and what has become an obscenely constructed European Union due to commenc tomorrow a British Prime Minister and Parliament has a practically unique opportunity to re-shape the world. Will they seize this chance to restore some self-respect to the tarnished and tawdry institution that British governance has become, by effecting change to irrevocably re-address the balance between the world's rich and poor?

Trafalger Celebration

Libby Purvis in The Times is one of the few to mention this years 200th anniversary in October of the truly Europe forming battle being celebrated today. Her observations are mainly directed at the significance of the attempts to ignore the date and may be read from here. A brief quote: The trouble is that it does matter, this sea-blindness. It has caused enough concern for a campaign to be founded, Sea Vision, to point up the naval, merchant, industrial, fishing, technological and training contribution of seafaring. The maritime industry, after all, turns over £37 billion, twice as much as aerospace and agriculture; 96 per cent of goods go by ship; exploration and understanding of the marine environment are ever more pressing; the Royal Navy is one of the strongest in the world despite the earnest efforts of successive governments to shrink it in the wash.

France's Sarkozy calls for suspension of Turkey's EU talks

France's Interior Minister,Nicolas Sarkozy, real power behind Prime Minister Villepin and the man presently strongly tipped to be France's next president has called for a suspension of EU negotiations with Turkey that are due to begin in earnest in October. This report is in The Times, linked from here. Such a move would remove some of the concern particularly evident in the French referendum campaign regarding the future of the EU. It of course does nothing to resolve the present crisis within the EU, although Sarkozy is reportedly in favour of economic reform outside the area of the Common Agricultural Policy. A sane and open organisation would at the outset have tried to define its own limits, even now setting the borders of the EU would solve some of its identity crisis at a stroke. The megalomaniacs who founded and still furtively drive the EU cannot of course accept such logical curbs on their wild ambitions. It is of course an impossibility to include Turkey in an organisation including Europe in the title as geographically speaking Tukey has two thirds of its land mass in Asia Minor. I assumed that following its absorbtion and during the EU's spread around the Mediterranean as presaged in the report on a Poltical Union presented to Romano Prodi and commented upon in detail on this blog, another renaming of the non-democratic organisation would be undertaken. How about another USSR on which it appears to be increasingly modeled - standing this time for Union of Socialism, Stagnation and Repression perhaps?. (After all, only by the latter can it now have any hope of continuation). Dropping mention of 'Europe' might of course highlight the half-century of whopping lies and subterfuge that were used to advance the project to this point of course. How do the flag, the 'Ode to Joy", the much vaunted common european heritage etc., all mesh with Turkish membership? Do the conspirators not realise ordinary people notice theses absurd contradictions? So how did they get into this mess the day before the rules for negotiations with Turkey are due to be set? Beats me!

Oil price surges through $60 ceiling

The report from Singapore in Business Day is linked here. The Telegraph this morning has an article warning that prices are set to continue to rise , it is linked here and opens as follows: A warning of a possible near doubling in the cost of oil was issued yesterday as UK prices rose to more than £4 a gallon and the AA Motoring Trust said the price of diesel was approaching £5 a gallon.

Anti-EU Party polls strongly in Bulgaria

Not only do the voters in nations already locked within the EU now begin to protest, but those about to be 'eudedemocratised' are also showing resistance. A party opposing Bulgaria's entry into the EU has polled almost double the votes expected, in spite of only having been formed some two months ago according to this report in the IHT, linked from here. The new party is expected to hold 24 seats in the new parliament where no obvious coalition is yet discernible.

France and Commission to ignore referendum results!

The item quoted below is taken from a bulletin of the British 'NO' campaign. It clearly proves that the EU's leaders have learnt nothing from the French and Dutch referenda results. Perhaps this new blog should have been titled 'Beyond Irony' we are now clearly beyond any short term return to democracy in Europe! "In a TV debate on France 3 French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called for a "Europe of projects." He said, "We have ideas, let's move forward rather than staying in this impasse we're in today." He said, "It's a choice we're faced with and that we must we must now settle. Do we want a free-trade Europe, as defended by the Brits, or a political Europe which tries more each day to respond to the questions posed by our citizens? That's the Europe that we wish to defend." De Villepin proposed wide-ranging "harmonisation" of the economic policies of eurozone countries, and said the Eurogroup of finance ministers should be able to "enter into dialogue" with the European Central Bank - a longstanding idea intended to give ministers more control over the ECB. De Villepin also proposed the creation of a "real European civil service", which would allow young Europeans to "work together on big projects." He also said he wanted to "go further" towards creating a single European defence (Reuters France, 23 June). EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel has said that the Commission will cooperate with Tony Blair only if he supports deeper EU integration."

Welcome to "Ironies Too"

Ironies I have had problems with the format and layout of the old Ironies blog. Nervous of losing all I had posted there, albeit knowing much is now irrelevant or even occasionally absurd, I have decided to start afresh leaving my small but often dedicated readership to add this new page to their favourites or bookmarks if they wish to continue reading my thoughts on democracy in Europe. The old blog will remain for links and nostalgic musings, but will not be updated once the links referring visitors to this new site has been added.