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May 26, 2004
The disenchantment of the electorate?
The big European Project seems to be getting less and less popular every day. The latest sign of disquiet is manifesting itself in the waining support for the pro-EU parties and the growth in this area for the anti-EU or at least luke warm EU parties. Thus we have the spectacle of the Conservative Unionist Party making a comeback in Scotland to the extent that the polls show they now have over 30% support among the 39% of the Scottish voters who say they will vote.
South of the border we have the UK Independence Party which the polls put in third place at 18% behind the Conservatives (31%) and Labour (25%), but ahead of the Lib Dems (Labour in Disguise Party), down to fourth(13%). The UKIP boasts a surge and we have another two weeks of campaiging (ho hum!) before the big polling day on 10th June. OK, so these are only for that wonderful hot air generating station in Strasbourg (Cue the music as the 30 odd pantechnicons of paperwork and reference material roll back and forth between Brussels [Technically the Admninistrative "Capital" of the EU] and Strasbourg [the Parliamentary "Capital"] in order to keep the MEP's from actually getting their noses into matters the bureaucrats would rather they didn't, and to maintain the French illusion that it is really Strasbourg which is the hub of Europe.
Just to complete the amusement in all of this, I came across a Bill before Parliament yesterday which sets out a very simple and classically effective means of derailing the entire EU agenda. It states simply that the UK Parliament may, if it chooses, and irrespective of any treaty, enact any statute which may be deliberately in conflict with an EU Directive. I like it. I certainly hope it passes!
As if the EU co-operative myth weren't in enough trouble, the news has now emerged that the new multi-million pound Euro-fighter - the exhorbitant cost of which has contributed to the massive and painful cuts to our fleet and to the RAF itself, cannot operate in cloud or undertake "dynamic manoevres" because its computers aren't up to the job. Such is the price of "economies of scale". I note with interest that the French and German airforces are not subject to the same swinging "economies" and have not cut back and scrapped their existing aircraft and have even dared to buy alternatives. Perhaps we should sack our present bunch of civil servants and politicians and import some from across the channel. The dictum put forward by Pliny, Caesar, and Tacitus - "Si vis pacem, para bellum"(He who seeks peace, prepares for war) seems to have been lost on most of them recently.
Overall, the British public seem to be even less likely to back the EU now than they were when the government was desperately trying to sell us the single currency a couple of years back. Ah well, a week is a long time in politics - and a couple more years may see this monstrous socialist experiment in centralisation and "internationalisation" consigned to the place it belongs - the dustbin.
Funnily enough, this trend is repeated across Europe where even in those countries where voting is compulsory; the voters are simply refusing to back the mainstream pro-EU parties and are instead "spoiling" by voting for single issue and lunatic fringe parties in EU elections. Wonder if the so-called leaders are getting the message, yet?
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 26, 2004 08:21 AM