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.
‘Lebedev wants In.’
Lebedev’s other organ yesterday had an interesting profile of Radek Sikorski, who must presently be having a big schadenfreude moment at Cameron’s expense.
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/the-sikorski-set-the-polish-foreign-minister-has-locked-horns-with-cameron–but-their-history-goes-back-to-the-bullingdon-club-9564492.html
One thing Sikorski has in common with expat Russian oligarchs, according to this article, is a soft spot for Cameron’s alma mater.
Safe, fast, effective and unlicensed: Habbabreak
Your sanity helper for Craig Murray’s blog.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
26 Jun, 2014 – 5:27 pm
“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.”
————————
But you don’t deny that your winkle has no foreskin, do you?
“There is nothing in the least Eurosceptic about Cameron”
No there isn’t, the City wouldn’t tolerate that. He may have promised a referendum but I’m not aware that he’s undertaken to abide by its result. It will be treated as an opinion poll.
Doug – please do not give H’s maunderings – blocked for the cognoscenti by the admirable Habbabreak device* – the oxygen of publicity. Your entertaining responses provide enough information on what has prompted them.
*it’s free. Try it.
You think you’ve got problems?
Habbabreak!
Helping the Al-Hillis thread community, still going strong at 20,323 comments.
This….
http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-proposes-500-million-to-aid-syrian-rebels-1403813486
This……..
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28042302
20, 324.
The French have a healthier disrespect for their political elite than the UK at the moment. Mrs Thatcher’s reform of that elite brought in a more grasping, more corporate and more brutal one, so it is reasonable to assume that when Thatcher spawn Cameron uses the word reform of the EU he wants to replace the current Federalist elite with a more grasping, more federal and more brutal one.
Signs of that brutality from the EU have already been seen in the Ukraine. Signs of that increased federality have been seen in France’s air strikes in Libya, Mali and nearly Syria. Increased Graspingness have been seen in the daylight robbery of Ireland Greece, Spain and Portugal.
We know what conservative politicians mean by Reform. Since it was Cameron who started the war in Syria using UK snipers against innocent demonstrators and Syrian army members, we would also expect to find more of the same in the project of Iraq/Syria.
More graspingness, more federality and more brutality = Tory Reform.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article184372.html
Hi Baal
Not only does Habbabreak allow you to hide all comments by any person of your choice, there is also a special fun option to hide any comment which even mentions Habbabkuk (no matter who wrote it). This is retained as a legacy nod to inspiration.
If you cannot see the check box for this special fun option you need to update to a newer version (simply click the install button).
“the daylight robbery of Ireland Greece, Spain and Portugal”
Indeed. Those who see the EU as a big happy clappy family and think we can only be stronger in rather than out seem not to have been paying attention.
Does this explosion look like conventional ordnance?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=18e_1398604088
Who has these ‘Davy Crocket’ rockets?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54
when Thatcher spawn Cameron uses the word reform of the EU he wants to replace the current Federalist elite with a more grasping, more federal and more brutal one.
Only in a sense, IMO. He’s shit-scared – or the bankers are, which comes to the same thing – that their free pass in London will be modified by new EU controls on finance. What he’s looking for is less federalism…and more globalism, with torrents of funny money rushing through, but leaving useful puddles behind in, London. It’s debatable whether Juncker would actually apply the new regulatory proposals, but virtually certain that anything he did to transfer trade from London to Frankfurt and Paris would be deeply appreciated by his friends.
Paradoxically, we’d have been in a rather stronger position to modify Europe if we’d bought into the Euro. But even further up economic shit creek, probably.
Fuel-air bomb, aka vacuum bomb, Ben. Everybody has them. Poor man’s nuke – you don’t need uranium to make a mushroom cloud. Just gasoline. Horrendous blast effect in immediate vicinity.
Mary
“I was making the point that since Habbabreak came into existence people can end up talking to themselves with an audience of one. I believe I am on Ba’al’s Habbabreak. Fair enough. He’s welcome.”
___________________
I hadn’t realised you’re on Ba’al’s Habbabreak.
Of course, as far as Ba’al’s concerned,using Habbabreak provides a convenient alibi for not having to defend or justify his comments and points of view; after all, if you can claim you didn’t see a question, then you can be blamed for not answering, can you.
And never responding to a challenge means that you can maintain that lofty air of infallibility, consisting of often dubious statements leavened by frequent essays at the epigram and the ready use of the gnomic comment.
In point of fact, though, Ba’al is only pretending, because he’s fully aware of my posts through the fact that others respond to me even though my question was addressed to him and that he reads those responses. A case in point is the little discussion on the UK budget rebate, also on this thread: a question of mine to Ba’al is taken up and replied to by OldMark (I shall reply to him later today) and of course Ba’al, who has not applied Habbabreak to OldMark, is perfectly aware of the detail of the discussion and my original question.
So not only is Ba’al copping out, he’s also lying when he claims ignorance of my posts. And that, by the way, is why he urges Mr Scorgie not to “feed” me (14h04) 🙂
“then you can be blamed for not answering, can you.”
= “then you can’t be blamed for not answering, can you.”
*****************
BTW, what happened to Komodo
(will the Mods’ “warning light” go on?)
Yup, it just did! 🙂
Thanks, Afrend. Don’t think I’m quite that motivated to use it, but handy to know it’s there.
TFS
27 Jun, 2014 – 9:22 am
“OMG, this woman should have a stint on the Newsnight programme. Can you imagine the fallout?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=13PIF3hAYgc
She certainly has the “gift of the gab.”
“Comedian Russell Brand condemned Fox News as a “fanatical terrorist propaganda organization” during a heated, 10-minute tirade recorded on video and uploaded to the web this week.”
http://rt.com/usa/168704-russell-brand-fox-news/
“,using Habbabreak provides a convenient alibi for not having to defend or justify his comments and points of view; after all, if you can claim you didn’t see a question, then you can be blamed for not answering, can you.”
Apparently, Havasack utilizes habbabreak.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/06/the-muddle-of-cameron/#comment-463143
Well said OldMark 11:55am – I live in a parallel universe where neglect of the current representative ‘democracy’ is de rigueur thus looking through a worm-hole connected to our system I note a compuction from President Putin towards illegal war, proxy war, drone strikes, murder and disregard for the lives of indigenous citizens. The spectrum of bad lies in his favor.
“Fulfilling a promise he made during his campaign for the Ukrainian presidency, Petro Poroshenko today signed a landmark association agreement with the European Union. This was the exact same document that Viktor Yanukovych was supposed to sign back in November before his last-minute reversal of course set off a string of mass protests that eventually culminated in his overthrow. Starting in the very near future, Ukraine-EU trade is going to undergo a sweeping liberalization, and the Ukrainian economy, which earlier enjoyed fairly robust tariff and non-tariff barriers, will become much more open to foreign goods and services.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2014/06/27/ukraine-russia-and-the-european-union-the-end-of-the-beginning/
The EU triumphs again.
The assumption that anyone could be blamed for not answering the troll is preposterous.
Does anyone have any software that will block people posting about software to block people please?
Fred
Is that a feature request? I would do that if it would make you happy.
I’m rather taken by Craig Murray’s suggestion that both Barack Obama and Li Kequiang, the leaders of the two most powerful nations in the world, were happy to dance to Cameron’s tune in connection with Scottish Independence.
If true, this is surely clear evidence of Cameron’s diplomatic skills and Britain’s ability to punch way above its weight internationally.
The NHS is still the best health service in the world, at the moment. Why change it?
See the entry for June 19th.
‘NHS is world’s number 1 – so why the reforms?
The respected American healthcare comparison organisation, the Commonwealth Fund, in its 2014 study, ranks the NHS as the best in the world for complex care patient services. The Kings Fund asks “why change it?”‘
http://www.nhscampaign.org/news-and-views.html
“So grad we aglee, Mr. Camelon. You want nucrear power station, we want invoice nucrear power station Scotland on same piece paper.”
Another one for Cameron’s ‘Things To Do’ list.
On Tuesday morning, David Cameron and his cabinet are going to sit down and decide on the future of our bees. Nearly 150,000 of us have already signed the petition demanding that he doesn’t allow banned Syngenta pesticides to be used on our fields.
At 8am on Tuesday morning, we’re going to swarm on Downing Street and hammer the message home in person. We’re organising a public demonstration outside Number 10, so that as ministers arrive for the Cabinet meeting they realise how much public anger there still is about this issue and they’ll feel they’ve no choice but to protect our bees.
Can you come along and swarm on Downing Street?
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/events/save-our-bees-swarm-on-downing-street
If you’re not able to make it on Tuesday morning, can you share the petition with your friends and family? The bigger we can make the petition, the more impact it will have when we hand it in to the Prime Minister.
Please forward this email and ask them to click this link:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/a-ban-is-a-ban
Craig
27 Jun, 2014 – 9:50 am
“The more squeeze on Putin – who is a far more vicious killer than anybody currently in power in the West, even Obama – the better. The ability of the British left to ignore Dagestan, Chechnya and the killing of hundreds of independent Russian journalists sickens me.”
Craig, you seem to have an obsession with Putin.
I think that the Russian mafia have more to do with the murder of journalists than the state, though no doubt they have infiltrated the power structure.
“A far more vicious killer than anybody currently in power…”
A bit of back up on that statement would be appreciated.
Perhaps you could start another thread naming and shaming British left organisations that support the Russian government’s crimes in Dagestan and Chechnya, that have undoubtedly, taken place.
I don’t think you’ll find any.
Criticism of the West does not equate to support for Putin.