Oborne identifies some reasons why Cameron fails to win support: Brown's resilient character, the weakness of the Tory front bench team, his kamikaze U-turn on Lisbon, and so on. All true. But I'd say Cameron's weakness can be put down to one thing: his failure at the one-legged test. The test comes from philosopher Ayn Rand's early days, when she had to pitch her book to the publishers at Random House. One of the executives at the meeting couldn't quite grasp Rand's talk of 'Objectivism.' So he asked her if she could stand on one leg and explain her philosophy. The point being that if you have a clear vision of what you believe, you will be able to sum it up in the few moments in which you can manage to stand on one leg. It was no problem for Rand. She stood up and, balancing on one high-heeled foot, she said without hesitation: 'My metaphysics, objective reality. My epistemology, reason. My ethics, self-interest. My politics, capitalism.' Foot down, contract signed. the rest is multi-million dollar publishing history. Cameron however has given no indication that his philosophy -- if he has any coherent set of beliefs at all -- is so clear. What does he stand for? None of us knows. All we know is that he stands for getting elected, and be careful to be insulting to no one except those who think Britain is being damaged by membership of the European Union. Beyond that, he appears to stand for nothing. If he wants to convince me, and all those Britons who refuse to give him their support in the opinion polls, that he is worth electing, he had better start expressing the right philosophy, and doing it flamingo-style. Which does make this week's choice of the new president of the United Nations General Assembly so very satisfying. The honour (if that is what it is) has been given to a Swiss centre-right politician, Joseph Deiss. This is all the more satisfying because -- as my Alpine contacts tell me -- the minaret vote was really meant as a slap to the political minority in the Swiss capital who have been trying for years to manoeuvre the Swiss people into being less Swiss and more 'European' -- in other words, into giving up their independence and joining the EU. What the Swiss were saying in their referendum was No to the EU no-borders way of life and Yes to national independence. The Swiss are a great, great people. No one has yet figured out what caused the latest collapse. Still, I recall what General Stonewall Jackson said in other circumstances: 'Anyone who does not see the hand of God in this is wilfully blind.' Meanwhile back here in Brussels today, EU civil servants have been carrying out a 'demonstration' -- they are too snobby to call it a strike -- in support of their demand that they be given a 3.7 percent increase in pay. I've just come from the daily press conference at the Commission where one of the civil servants stood up and explained how the eurocrats have a right to expect the fall in their standard of living to be remedied by a pay increase. A fall in their standard of living? Earlier this month an investigation by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) showed just what the standard of living is for these EU civil servants. Open Europe, in its handy way, translated the story. FAZ found that European civil servants earn 'between €2,336 (£2,105) and €17,697 (£15,943)' a month, adding that 'the 60 Director Generals make about double the money of those with comparable functions in Germany.' More, 'university level graduates without any professional experience make at least €4,190 (£3,774) a month when they start.' As for taxation, eurocrats 'are not being taxed in their home countries, but they have to pay the Community tax, which goes from 8 percent to 45 percent with the highest tax bracket applying on wages above €6,700 (£6,036) per month.' Plus, there are 'a lot of tax free benefits: living allowances of 2 percent of the wage plus €160 (£144), a child allowance of €350 (£315) per child, an educational allowance of €240 (£216) and diverse other special allowances...they benefit from a place for their children in a highly-subsidised European school. They get much better health care than normal Belgians for a contribution of only 2 percent of their wage. And on it goes through travel allowances costing European taxpayers €45m (£40.5m) a year. Also, it appears the MEPs may be able to claim a pay increase as well if the civil servants get the 3.7 percent they are demanding. And, for the look of things, are going to get. God knows what ought to happen to this greedy, greedy place. One hopes that the divine verdict on Sodom and Gomorrah may have established a precedent.
19 December 2009 10:08 AM
Cameron: time to get legless
Peter Oborne has a piece on the Debate page today about David Cameron andthe question that is troubling the Tory leader -- why isn't he doing better in the polls? Gordon Brown is an unpopular prime minister in charge of a tired, sleazy and incompetent government, yet Cameron and his Conservatives can manage a lead of just 10 percent.
Share this article:
18 December 2009 4:57 PM
Oui a l'interdiction des minarets? No problem at the UN
How to call their bluff: ever since the Swiss voted last month to ban any further construction of minarets in their country, the usual 'culturally sensitive' mob have been threatening that the Swiss have 'isolated' themselves within the international community (whatever that is).
Share this article:
14 December 2009 1:37 PM
God knows
Over the weekend, part of the ceiling at the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg fell, just hours before the MEPs were due to arrive for a session. This is the second time in 18 months that concrete ceiling slabs have come crashing down at the parliament.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Posts
