The EU often wonders why the British (the public, at least) don't seem particularly keen on being members of the EU.
Maybe it boils down to one, several or all these main theories:
1) The British are proud of their great, ancient nation and fiercely defend their country's sovereignty. If every other European nation isn't patriotic, let THEM be in the EU but not us;
2) Surely, if the EU became a proper nation state - a United States of Europe - that would mean Britain having to get rid of the monarchy as the EU would probably be a republic - even though the British people are extremely anti-republic.
3) The EU is NOT a democracy, and does NOT respect the desires of the people. There have been examples of this from time to time, such as making countries re-take referendums when their people vote against what the EU wants - as the EU did to the Republic of Ireland when it rejected the Maastricht Treaty. The EU forced the Irish people to keep voting in the referendum until the voted FOR it!
4) The anti-Americanism shown by many EU countries, especially France and Germany, and from the EU itself. This even takes the form of paranoid delusion. Earlier this year, the Irish people voted "NO" to the EU Constitution, just as the French and Dutch people did in 2005. According to the EU, the reason why the Irish voted "NO" to the EU Constitution is because they are stooges of of the US/CIA/Pentagon/Multinational corporations/Jewish bankers/Zionism/Communism - an idea put forward by German politicians.
I think the British will be better off out....
Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Bruno Waterfield has been Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph since December 2006. He has been reporting on the EU and European affairs since 2000, first from Westminster and then from Brussels since January 2003. He is also a regular contributor to www.spiked-online.com
EU claims Irish are CIA stooges
Posted By: Bruno Waterfield in Brussels at Sep 24, 2008
The Telegraph
First the Irish were attacked for being ungrateful. Then Ireland's voters were criticized for being ignorant and infantile. Next it was all the fault of bloggers.
Now we are told that the Irish who voted No to the Lisbon European Union Treaty are really CIA stooges.
German Hans-Gert Pöttering has given the thumbs up to the CIA conspiracy theory
The EU's great and good (clearly crazed by continued and repeated referendum rejections) have embraced a new swivel-eyed conspiracy theory to explain why it is all a United States/Pentagon/CIA/Neo-Con plot against Europe after all.
The charge has been led this week by German Green Euro-MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a man who has long played the role of useful idiot to the EU's political establishment. His barmy claims have been taken up by European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, a German Christian Democrat, and echoed in the Commission.
Mr Cohn-Bendit, a former radical leftie turned leader of Europe's Greens, has resorted to classic smear tactics by demanding an EU investigation into the funding of the Irish No Campaign and the finances of one of its leaders, Declan Ganley.
The claims follow Irish Government attacks on Mr Ganley over contracts his company Rivada has with the US military, business claimed to be worth more than €200 million.
"Last weekend, the Irish press revealed that there possibly exists a link between the financers of the no-campaign in Ireland and the Pentagon as well as the CIA. This was a very interesting story and the explanation given was that Europe should not become too strong," said Mr Cohn-Bendit.
"If proved true, this would clearly show that there are forces in the US willing to pay people to destabilise a strong and autonomous Europe. If this can happen for the Lisbon Treaty vote, it raises grave concerns for interference in next year's European elections."
This absurd conspiracy theory has come to the fore as the Brussels, EU and Irish political establishments resort to increasingly desperate efforts to discredit the No vote.
The lunatic idea (an amazing delusion of grandeur) that Washington would want to intervene in European elections is gently lampooned by Open Europe.
Nobody really cares about euro-elections - except for MEPs. Everybody knows that.
Of course, as Mr Cohn-Bendit also knows full well, the US is a great supporter of the EU, its old Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty that replaced it. The EU of today (especially its foreign policy and single currency) was encouraged by the Americans, let alone the British and French, as a way of binding a unified Germany into the West. The idea that the Pentagon would want to block an EU Treaty that pushes Europe to assume more of the bill for security, defence and, ultimately, Nato is dumb, really dumb.
In fact, Mr Cohn-Bendit and Mr Pöttering's resort to anti-Americanism, as England Expects notes, is for a German audience amid fears here in Brussels that the EU establishment will get a drubbing in Germany during European elections next June.
The EU fixation with the No campaign's finances and the role of Mr Ganley is a complete denial and inversion of the real political balance of forces in the Irish Lisbon referendum battle. The entire political establishment in Ireland, with the Pope's support, backed a Yes vote - a priceless coalition.
The No side won, not because of Mr Ganley or his cash, but because the majority of Irish people (as with the French and Dutch before) rejected the uniform outlook of their rulers that, on Lisbon or the EU Constitution, There Is No Alternative.
By creating the fiction that US cash stole Ireland's vote on June 12, EU types can pretend to be the poor little underdog, victims of sinister, powerful anti-European Pentagon forces.
We should not be fooled. It is not about the EU versus the US, this is nothing more than a smokescreen for the euro-reactionaries who believe that EU referendums should only have one answer, Yes.
Mr Pöttering, backed up by the European Commission, has now demanded "transparency" - a Brussels weasel word.
"I have been following this whole matter very attentively for some time. We do indeed need absolute transparency on this because this is exactly what those who are attacking us demand. However, they must of course comply with these standards themselves, i.e. they must provide total transparency on what funds this organisation," he said.
"We must continue to follow this affair very closely. The facts must be put on the table. We cannot allow Europe to be harmed by people who demand transparency but do not provide it themselves."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I deduce from your applause that we stand on the side of those who strive for absolute transparency in all of these questions in order to keep Europe from suffering harm."
I, for one, can confirm that the Parliament President has "attentively" followed these claims. I have been pestered a number of times over recent weeks by his aides who have tried to place stories about Mr Ganley and the No campaign's finances, the CIA and Albanian mafia.
The "transparency" lobby here in Brussels is given much radical chic by Greens and environmentalists. It is a deeply conservative and reactionary outlook.
Many in the EU think that we, the people, are stupid and that those who disagree with their world view can only be malicious, dangerous or in the pay of the US/CIA/Pentagon/Multinational corporations/Jewish bankers/Zionism/Communism/(take your pick).
As I have noted before, here and here, Brussels chatter about "hidden agendas" is code for not trusting people to be able to judge for themselves over arguments put forward by others. It is a call to set set up policemen over public life.
telegraph.co.uk
Maybe it boils down to one, several or all these main theories:
1) The British are proud of their great, ancient nation and fiercely defend their country's sovereignty. If every other European nation isn't patriotic, let THEM be in the EU but not us;
2) Surely, if the EU became a proper nation state - a United States of Europe - that would mean Britain having to get rid of the monarchy as the EU would probably be a republic - even though the British people are extremely anti-republic.
3) The EU is NOT a democracy, and does NOT respect the desires of the people. There have been examples of this from time to time, such as making countries re-take referendums when their people vote against what the EU wants - as the EU did to the Republic of Ireland when it rejected the Maastricht Treaty. The EU forced the Irish people to keep voting in the referendum until the voted FOR it!
4) The anti-Americanism shown by many EU countries, especially France and Germany, and from the EU itself. This even takes the form of paranoid delusion. Earlier this year, the Irish people voted "NO" to the EU Constitution, just as the French and Dutch people did in 2005. According to the EU, the reason why the Irish voted "NO" to the EU Constitution is because they are stooges of of the US/CIA/Pentagon/Multinational corporations/Jewish bankers/Zionism/Communism - an idea put forward by German politicians.
I think the British will be better off out....
Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Bruno Waterfield has been Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph since December 2006. He has been reporting on the EU and European affairs since 2000, first from Westminster and then from Brussels since January 2003. He is also a regular contributor to www.spiked-online.com
EU claims Irish are CIA stooges
Posted By: Bruno Waterfield in Brussels at Sep 24, 2008
The Telegraph
First the Irish were attacked for being ungrateful. Then Ireland's voters were criticized for being ignorant and infantile. Next it was all the fault of bloggers.
Now we are told that the Irish who voted No to the Lisbon European Union Treaty are really CIA stooges.
German Hans-Gert Pöttering has given the thumbs up to the CIA conspiracy theory
The EU's great and good (clearly crazed by continued and repeated referendum rejections) have embraced a new swivel-eyed conspiracy theory to explain why it is all a United States/Pentagon/CIA/Neo-Con plot against Europe after all.
The charge has been led this week by German Green Euro-MP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a man who has long played the role of useful idiot to the EU's political establishment. His barmy claims have been taken up by European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, a German Christian Democrat, and echoed in the Commission.
Mr Cohn-Bendit, a former radical leftie turned leader of Europe's Greens, has resorted to classic smear tactics by demanding an EU investigation into the funding of the Irish No Campaign and the finances of one of its leaders, Declan Ganley.
The claims follow Irish Government attacks on Mr Ganley over contracts his company Rivada has with the US military, business claimed to be worth more than €200 million.
"Last weekend, the Irish press revealed that there possibly exists a link between the financers of the no-campaign in Ireland and the Pentagon as well as the CIA. This was a very interesting story and the explanation given was that Europe should not become too strong," said Mr Cohn-Bendit.
"If proved true, this would clearly show that there are forces in the US willing to pay people to destabilise a strong and autonomous Europe. If this can happen for the Lisbon Treaty vote, it raises grave concerns for interference in next year's European elections."
This absurd conspiracy theory has come to the fore as the Brussels, EU and Irish political establishments resort to increasingly desperate efforts to discredit the No vote.
The lunatic idea (an amazing delusion of grandeur) that Washington would want to intervene in European elections is gently lampooned by Open Europe.
Nobody really cares about euro-elections - except for MEPs. Everybody knows that.
Of course, as Mr Cohn-Bendit also knows full well, the US is a great supporter of the EU, its old Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty that replaced it. The EU of today (especially its foreign policy and single currency) was encouraged by the Americans, let alone the British and French, as a way of binding a unified Germany into the West. The idea that the Pentagon would want to block an EU Treaty that pushes Europe to assume more of the bill for security, defence and, ultimately, Nato is dumb, really dumb.
In fact, Mr Cohn-Bendit and Mr Pöttering's resort to anti-Americanism, as England Expects notes, is for a German audience amid fears here in Brussels that the EU establishment will get a drubbing in Germany during European elections next June.
The EU fixation with the No campaign's finances and the role of Mr Ganley is a complete denial and inversion of the real political balance of forces in the Irish Lisbon referendum battle. The entire political establishment in Ireland, with the Pope's support, backed a Yes vote - a priceless coalition.
The No side won, not because of Mr Ganley or his cash, but because the majority of Irish people (as with the French and Dutch before) rejected the uniform outlook of their rulers that, on Lisbon or the EU Constitution, There Is No Alternative.
By creating the fiction that US cash stole Ireland's vote on June 12, EU types can pretend to be the poor little underdog, victims of sinister, powerful anti-European Pentagon forces.
We should not be fooled. It is not about the EU versus the US, this is nothing more than a smokescreen for the euro-reactionaries who believe that EU referendums should only have one answer, Yes.
Mr Pöttering, backed up by the European Commission, has now demanded "transparency" - a Brussels weasel word.
"I have been following this whole matter very attentively for some time. We do indeed need absolute transparency on this because this is exactly what those who are attacking us demand. However, they must of course comply with these standards themselves, i.e. they must provide total transparency on what funds this organisation," he said.
"We must continue to follow this affair very closely. The facts must be put on the table. We cannot allow Europe to be harmed by people who demand transparency but do not provide it themselves."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I deduce from your applause that we stand on the side of those who strive for absolute transparency in all of these questions in order to keep Europe from suffering harm."
I, for one, can confirm that the Parliament President has "attentively" followed these claims. I have been pestered a number of times over recent weeks by his aides who have tried to place stories about Mr Ganley and the No campaign's finances, the CIA and Albanian mafia.
The "transparency" lobby here in Brussels is given much radical chic by Greens and environmentalists. It is a deeply conservative and reactionary outlook.
Many in the EU think that we, the people, are stupid and that those who disagree with their world view can only be malicious, dangerous or in the pay of the US/CIA/Pentagon/Multinational corporations/Jewish bankers/Zionism/Communism/(take your pick).
As I have noted before, here and here, Brussels chatter about "hidden agendas" is code for not trusting people to be able to judge for themselves over arguments put forward by others. It is a call to set set up policemen over public life.
telegraph.co.uk