There was never the slightest chance that David Cameron will achieve any significant “renegotiation” of Britain’s EU membership terms. This fictitious “renegotiation” is the fig-leaf with which Cameron has sought to appease euro-sceptics, promising an in-out referendum once the non-existent “renegotiation” is completed.
When a non-existent process can be deemed complete is an interesting question.
On Cameron’s side, it has only ever been a fig-leaf to buy time, though I do not entirely discount Britain’s extraordinary capacity to delude itself about its ability to “punch above its weight” diplomatically. The book of modern British diplomatic triumphs would be a slim volume indeed.
But the Emperor has made the mistake of pointing to his dangling naked penis. Cameron stated starkly that the election of Jean Claude Juncker to head the European Commission would be evidence that Europe would not adopt Cameron style reform.
Yes, David. Exactly. Thanks for pointing it out. Personally I never thought you were wearing any trousers anyway, but if anyone did you have now dangled it right in their faces.
Cameron has made it even more plain by linking Juncker’s election directly to Cameron’s thesis that national governments must always be paramount in Europe. Juncker’s election is in accordance with an agreement that the leader of the largest party in the European Parliament will head the Commission. Thus, as Cameron pointed out, the very process itself is an advance of Euro-federalism and Euro-democracy, irrespective of Juncker’s views. Absolutely. Cameron’s thesis that national governments must be paramount over European institutions has already been defeated in what Cameron himself made a symbolic fight. The complete fatuity of Cameron’s re-negotiation claims is exposed.
Personally I am very pro-EU. But whatever your stance on the EU, the outright dishonesty of the Cameron approach must be condemned.
I published a couple of weeks ago that Juncker does not share Barroso’s hostility to Scottish independence: as a former Prime Minister of Luxembourg he does not see the problem with small nations. The British media has been extremely keen to puff up the opposition to Scottish independence by foreign leaders. Cameron and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have invested huge diplomatic capital into persuading Barack Obama and Li Keqiang to make statements against Scottish independence, while standing next to Cameron for the cameras.
The media failed to pay the same attention to a much more significant occasion – Angela Merkel refused to do it. Standing right next to David Cameron at a press conference in Sweden, Merkel rebuffed intense British diplomatic lobbying when she refused to back the continued existence of the state the man next to her was representing. It was a stunning slight, as Merkel knocked back the same question fed to Obama and Keqiang with the sensible (though entirely untrue) reply that she never answers hypothetical questions. Cameron stared at the floor, discomfited.
There was never the remotest chance that an independent Scotland would be excluded from the European Union. And the two people who are most important in that decision – Jean Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel – have not been amenable to the FCO’s frenetic anti-Scottish lobbying. They both are in positions much more vital to Scotland’s future than Barack Obama and Li Keqiang – both of whom will change their tune post-independence anyway.
Cameron’s headaches are multiplying.
“Don’t know what’s wrong with my eyesight today”
If you copy and paste you can’t go wrong.
@ Hilde Benjamin (13h41)
“I don’t need glasses thank goodness.”
__________________
It is reassuring to know that nothing can come between that steely glint in your eye and the objects of your loathing, scorn and derision.
The power of a petition. Well done 38 Degrees.
~~~~
*High fives* and *applause* – Barclays won’t be investing in the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef!
Remember Abbot Point, the huge coal port that mega company Adani want to build at the heart of the pristine reef? Last night, Barclays confirmed they have:
“… no plans to participate in financing the Abbot Point development or its associated mine/rail infrastructure”. [1]
This is great news, particularly because they haven’t just said they won’t fund the port. They’ve also said they won’t sink money into the mines or the railway lines that take the coal to the coast. Barclays are one of the biggest international investors in Australian coal, so this is pretty huge.
Thousands of us worked alongside organisations around the world to make this happen. [2] Last week, 38 Degrees members sent over 10,000 tweets to Barclays’ media team, asking for a statement. [3] We got one – but 140 characters or less is hardly a binding commitment. So together we sent an amazing 18,361 emails to Barclays asking them to formally rule out investing in Abbot Point or any of the railways or mines linking to it.
And we got it! Adani are still on the hunt for investors, but taking Barclays out of the mix is a huge step forward. And it’s people power wot won it. Here’s to the Great Barrier Reef (and to saving Nemo!).
Thanks for being involved.
~~~~
There are nearly 97,000 signatures on the petition to Cameron about bees and the neonicotinoids that kill them.
And guess who fucked up the last time we renegotiated with the EU…
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/476734/Tony-Blair-s-EU-renegotiation-deal-that-cost-Britain-10billion
Blair – the git* that goes on giving.
*sic
Nice little ad hominem there I expect. Thought they weren’t allowed! That is from the person who was discussing plants and chickens recently and ‘speaking’ to me as if he was a normal person. Very puzzling double persona.
Hilde Benjamin = I have never heard of her and don’t intend to find out.
Who does what.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75858000/gif/_75858792_20140625_european_commission_624.gif
“Hilde Benjamin = I have never heard of her and don’t intend to find out.”
_______________________
You are the great researcher and finder-out, Mary, so you should google her. I promise you you won’t regret it.
She might even have been a formative influence on you without you knowing it.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
26 Jun, 2014 – 2:52 pm
“The first bit of the above is just another straw man (from Craig).”
—————————————–
Habbabkuk you wouldn’t recognise a straw man if one bit you on your (de-foreskined) winkle.
You use terms, in an attempt to impress, that you obviously don’t understand.
Ba’al Zevul
“And guess who fucked up the last time we renegotiated with the EU…
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/476734/Tony-Blair-s-EU-renegotiation-deal-that-cost-Britain-10billion
Blair – the git* that goes on giving.”
_________________________
I’m afraid your enthusiasm for giving Blair a good pasting (which is fair enough) has got you into bed* with some rather dubious company (which is regrettable).
I hadn’t realised you used the Daily Express as a source, but hey, it’s a free (if dumb) country! But you know it’s not the right thing to do!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If anyone’s interested, the “fuck up” was no fuck up at all, Ba’ar. The UK forewent that part of its budget rebate (won by Mrs T) which related to certain expenditures flowing arising directly out of the accession of the central and eastern European member states in 2004. The rationale was that whereas the original rebate was a “correction”” for an EU own resources system and pattern of expenditure which the UK had had no hand in creating and which was unfair to it in financial terms, the UK was itself one of the leading champions of the widening on the EU to the central and eastern European countries and could not therefore reasonably demand that the rebate should also apply to various expenditure related to same.
Was that clear enough for Eminences and yourself, Ba’al? If not, hands off cocks and re-read very carefully.
* (Ba’al-type footnote) only figuratively, of course.
Cameron must find it very hard now that Rebekah’s back flouncing amongst the Chipprrs set.
Im sure she’ll bend over backwards to comfort him though.
Mr Scorgie
“Habbabkuk you wouldn’t recognise a straw man if one bit you on your (de-foreskined) winkle.
You use terms, in an attempt to impress, that you obviously don’t understand.”
____________________
Firstly, welcome back, Doug! It was time for my right leg (that’s my kicking leg)to get some exercise again.
Secondly, you may well be right. So please read Straw Dogs (braised à la Sam Peckinpah) or Bales of Straw, or Bionic Man or Man of Marble (A. Wajda) or whatever pleases you most. You know it makes sense!
Jives
And a merry welcome back to you too, Jonathan!
May we look forward to some more pearls of wisdom from you, delivered overnight and in time to be read by us tomorrow morning over the buttered toast, scrambled egg and coffee?
So kind of you, and toodle pip, enjoy your night!
Desperately trying to divert from Camerons utter embarassment our socket is getting personal, yawn, again.
Scotland should it want to stay in Europe would be welcome, its not in the interest of the EU to exclude a country just because they have left and unhappy relationship.
Cameron will now think twice before suggesting a No vote, his bluster has been called not even Yobbik would consider siding with the Tories.
His ignorance of the laws of Europe, as well as ours, not to speak of his outburst over Coulson when the judge hasn’t finished makes him unsuitable as PM.
Maybe sunday mornings selling bananas on Hamburg fishmarket would more be down his rah rah street, he could shout his mouth off as much as he likes.
Cameron has made a twit of himself and of Britain, what will business negotiations look like after this jokels stand up comedy?
I must say I feel rather spoilt this evening; it’s not every day that I have the opportunity to dole out some correction to two Eminences and a Useful Idiot within the space of quarter of an hour.
Thanks guys, you know it was the right thing to do.
The failed sock-puppet – busted in his first ever post here- gushes more drivel.
The point of sock puppetry is for people not to know youre one Habbatroll.
Youre really not very good at it are you?
Your line manager is crying at your ineptitude Habbab-Turvey.
The Troll bund, if they were a soccer team, would depart the field at half-time while declaring victory.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/06/rusbridger-the-worlds-worst-editor/#comment-463128
US-0 Germany-1 with 20 left to play.
Wee update on theSack Bliar petition… Gaining Support –
http://stopwar.org.uk/news/sack-tony-blair-petition-signed-by-noam-chmosky-stephen-fry-russell-brand-many-more#.U6xWhkDviSp
Bore ya to tears that Game Ben
i’d Rather have watched the Ghana v Portugal Game 2 – 1 at the moment to Portugal…bit Late But Come on Ghana.. 🙂
The best part is that they have been over=performing as under-dogs. They lost this one, but few thought they would go this far, Brian.
Some worship at the altar of David Cameron, the brave leader with the bulldog spirit, by the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson.
Cameron and EU: Defeat and then what?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28043915
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InaYmznxqp8
what do I see in our future now?
I see pitchforks.
At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#ixzz35m8X6BSi
Glad to see there’s self-awareness from this muddle. Can the EU help with this?
“Angela Merkel refused to do it. Standing right next to David Cameron at a press conference in Sweden, Merkel rebuffed intense British diplomatic lobbying when she refused to back the continued existence of the state the man next to her was representing.”
And why do you think, that is Craig? Because the Germans want to take over Europe, and the UK is the only remaining hurdle to that! Yes, of course Merkel wants an independent Scotland – so that she can throw her weight around and subjugate Scotland, in the same manner she has Ireland, Greece and Portugal.
In your obsession with Westminster, you are, I’m afraid, hopelessly naive about the EU and its leaders.
Intensely lobbying Merkel, a scientists with a rational brain, you are having a laugh Tom.
Taking over Europe, says the man from Commonwealth empire, are you well?
This sort of talk should be directed at the rightwing conspiracies that are hard at work trying to derail what last little bit of humanity still exists in Europe. But they are as much befallen by their own ego’s than the main party politicial oligarchs, desperate to make out that they are representing anyone with their antics.
Germany already runs Europe; or at any rate Europe is run for Germany’s benefit.
How long before Scotland is sending it’s budget to Berlin for approval?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/18/ireland-budget-germany-leak
There is a huge cultural chasm between Europeans and our culture weaned at the tits of the Mac US direction (Marshall Plan etc.)
Stark examples;
A giant marble vagina sculpture, stood at the Schnarrenberg Institute for Microbiology and Virology in Tübingen celebrating womanhood.
Contrast;
A visiting American climbing into the stone vagina and getting trapped and in need rescue by the local fire brigade.
Conclusion;
Who won the three that mattered then? (WWI, WWII, World cup 1964)
Now the beaten Germans are trying to get even the sneaky way, best kick off another war and teach the Jerry who is the boss!
The Torygraph is most concerned by Mr Juncker’s smoking and drinking.
Headline job.
Fears over Jean-Claude Juncker’s drinking
Concerns about the lifestyle of European Commission’s president in waiting raised by EU leaders ahead of key summit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10929427/Fears-over-Jean-Claude-Junckers-drinking.html
Whistleblowers; a muddle for the lawkeepers.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/26/exclusive-scapegoatingthewhistleblower.html
“Last year, for the first time, De Sousa revealed that she was a CIA operative working for the National Clandestine Service (NCS). For nearly a decade, she had been working behind-the-scenes firing off letters to members of Congress and executive branch officials, informing them that the U.S. violated international laws when the CIA decided to kidnap Abu Omar.
De Sousa has never publicly discussed all the efforts she undertook to alert government officials and lawmakers that the Abu Omar’s kidnapping was a “colossal mistake” and convince them to investigate her claims of wrongdoing, which implicate top CIA officials. She told Al Jazeera that she first contacted top Bush administration officials, but received no response. In 2009, hoping the response would be different under Obama, she disclosed to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton what she says are troubling details about her treatment by the U.S. government in the aftermath of her whistleblowing. But, like the Bush administration officials before them, they also ignored her pleas, De Sousa says, and the CIA turned her into a “scapegoat” while the executive branch looked away.
Mary, here’s House of Commons Committee Room 14’s vote for Yes in the Scottish independence referendum: https://twitter.com/kittycatboyd/status/482255454832447489
Watch this space http://www.redpepper.org.uk/radicalcase/ for news of more activities in England & Wales to support Scottish independence.