So, the French have taken the internal markets portfolio, the key financial job at the European Commission. Of course they have. That was the deal. Britain, which is to say, Gordon Brown, was told he could 'win' the job of EU foreign minister for the untested, inexperienced, unknown Lady Ashton, if in return he let the French take the internal markets job. In other words, Brown gave a fat, well-paid job to a ludicrously ill-suited crony in return for letting the French have the power to over-regulate every bank, hedge fund private equity group and fund manager left in London (of which there may soon be not many, once corporatist eurocrats start re-writing the rule books: Hong kong and New York will be so pleased). Of course, last week when news of this deal seeped out from under the closed doors of the dealings by the prime ministers and presidents at the European Council, the Tory leadership expressed indignation that Brown would allow the French to take control of financial regulation. William Hague in particular was indignant, and indeed even threatened to....write a letter about it. Dear heavens, one could just weep at this point. After their capitulation to Lisbon, the Tories are nothing but an embarrassment to themselves on any EU issue. Everyone knows now that their threats and indignations are empty, and their leaders are impotent. Self-inflicted, of course: the Conservatives have turned themselves into EUnuchs. 'Having lived in London,' he writes, 'and spent considerable time with well-travelled, broadly knowledgeable Europeans, I was struck by how many were conversant in virtually everything...except Christianity. Time and again, this was the one topic where their eyes went glassy.' 'This became especially evident when Daisy Crockett Palin's religious views came under fire. Each time I was asked for my take, I found that the inquirer normally had little familiarity with core terms like fundamentalism, End Times, Revelations (never mind Papacy or Reformation), etc. They knew they were supposed to feel threatened by Alaska Annie's beliefs, but that was where their understanding usually stopped.' 'This is why I label spots like the UK pre-Christian rather than post-Christian. In my mind, a post-Christian society would still be streaked with some residue of what came before. For instance, we live in a post-Constitution US, but most Americans still retain some memory of the Bill of Rights, or at least of the First, Second and Fifth Amendments. Not so in the UK, where for many, including (especially?) those who flaunt their lust for imbibing culture, Christian churches are for marrying and dying (if that). Any connection to other ceremonies they might host, how these edifices got there, or the beliefs that inspired them, is utterly absent. They don't discuss Christianity like forgotten high school trig. They discuss it like a kindergartner would discuss high school trig...' 
28 November 2009 10:57 AM
Tory EUnuchs
27 November 2009 2:35 PM
Britain's conversion to pre-Christianity
Mike Payne, one of the American writers manning the Sniper's Tower at Taki's Magazine, has been pondering the term, 'the post-Christian West.' He notes that this term now pops up frequently, 'and in my view is probably too optimistic.'
Sunday, 29 November 2009
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