Not called Papandreou for nothing - by Helen... Sunday, November 06, 2011

Not called Papandreou for nothing - by Helen... Sunday, November 06, 2011

George Papandreou, hereditary Prime Minister of Greece is hanging on in there. The Telegraphsays

George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, cleared the way for his resignation by scheduling a three way meeting with Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative opposition, and the president to overcome sticking points over the leadership and duration of the unity government.

A seven point plan for the new government was thrashed out at a cabinet meeting of socialist government. It included a deadline for parliament to ratify the eurozone bailout before the end of December.

Mr Papandreou told the cabinet that the country would be presented with a new government within hours and that he would vacate office soon after. The interim government, led by technocrats, will run the country until a general election is called, probably in the first half of next year.

Is that within hours shorter than the half an hour that was the period predicted at the time of the Cabinet meeting on Thursday?

Bloomberg adds:

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, trying to preserve international aid before the nation runs out of money next month, raced to form a unity government before markets open as the main opposition leader demanded he step down before any accord.

“It’s clear this government is prepared to hand over the baton, but it can’t hand it over into a vacuum,” Papandreou told his ministers at a meeting today in Athens, according to an e-mailed transcript from his office. “We will hand it over to the next government if we agree and conclude on this. And I hope this will happen, as I said, soon and when I say soon, I mean today, not tomorrow, for very many reasons.”

Papandreou met late today with New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras and President Karolos Papoulias to iron out differences. Samaras had earlier said he was “determined to help” reach an agreement as long as the premier stepped down first. Samaras had previously demanded early elections and balked at joining forces with Papandreou’s socialist Pasok party even if the premier resigned.

I presume he will resign at some point soon and the likelihood is that the Finance Minister will take over. However, one cannot simply disregard the Leader of the Not So Loyal Opposition. Frankly, even if the man goes I don't expect him to stay away from government for long. He would not be worthy of the name Papandreou if he did that.

First of those cross-posted contributions.

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Cruella is baaaaaaaaaaaaack! - by Helen...

Well, only temporarily. The Boss will be allowed to take light internet on Tuesday, I am told, and, no doubt, will be checking up on my activities on this blog. Heh! It will be lighter blogging as I am not nearly as hard-working as the Boss but those readers who were around in the past know that. Those who have arrived here since the time I resided on EUReferendum will learn.

Furthermore, I shall be juggling two blogs therefore some of the postings will be duplicated. Not a great problem as there are many readers who do not read Your Freedom and Ours and will not be bored by my burblings.

What else will be different? Less anger and fury but a good deal more cold sarcasm. Nobody, I am proud to say, does cold sarcasm better than I do. Some of the subjects might be different. My preoccupations are different. I shall try to keep off matters to do with Russia or the tranzis; on the other hand my view on local government is quite simple: get rid of it ASAP. I shall not be writing about it or about bailiffs with whom I have not had much to do for some years but they may return into my life. Who can predict such things?

Someone else will be handling the comments and the forum and as the Boss said, North Jnr will be posting bulletins.

So with all those provisos ... en avant.

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Light blogging - by Richard...

I'm off to the menders for a spot of open heart surgery. A slight fall-off in my rate of blogging may thus occur.

The prospect of human beings rooting around in my insides is slightly daunting, even more so that bits of my heart are to be removed and replaced with parts of a pig. Fortunately, I know the owner of the slaughterhouse from whence the porcine volunteer came, and Sammy has assured me that only the highest quality pigs are used. I am much cheered.

At the Nuffield, under the care of Pankaj Kaul, I could not be in better hands. If things go to plan, I shall be rather preoccupied through Monday, but may be in a position to take an interest in the wider world from late Tuesday. The hospital is equipped with wi-fi, and I will be taking my laptop. Depending on how I feel, I may subsequently be able to write the occasional blog post.

In the meantime, North Jr, Helen - and even Booker - have promised to step into the breach. Peter will post occasional bulletins, and the ever-faithful Mrs EUReferendum will be holding the fort. My thanks for everyone's good wishes. These are much appreciated, and readers need have no fears. I am told that the operation does not confer a sunny disposition. God willing, service will continue as before, with "snarl mode" as default.

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Does this man have any self-awareness? - by Richard...

"The psychology of the EU – a postwar elite bureaucracy – is entirely out of kilter with this very modern surge of popular protest: technology-driven, non-hierarchical, anti-elitist. It is like trying to connect an old ribbon typewriter to an iPad".

So writes that unutterable fool Matthew d'Ancona. He is correct, as far as it goes. But he needs to look in the mirror. This is the man whose public fawning over the love of his life, David Cameron, is positively embarrassing, and man for whom the phrase "head up his own arse" was invented.

Further, he perpetuates the great and ongoing myth that this is all about the euro-élites, conveniently sliding over the sailent fact that it is the likes of him, and the British political élites whom he supports, that help keep in place the EU structures.

The "above-the-line" syndrome does thus affect them all. They are part of the problem and it is a measure of how out of touch they are that fools such as d'Ancona can write his pieces without blushing. Still, at least someone is on the ball ... read Autonomous Mind.

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Homework fail - by Richard...

Our politicians continue to babble, says Freddie Forsyth. But he is doing precisely the same in theExpress, babbling about something of which he clearly knows little.

On the perfectly correct premise that the Tory ambitions of repatriating EU powers are moonshine, he then goes on to construct an elaborate explanation of why this might be, displaying not only a perilous lack of understanding of the nature of the EU, but also by inventing a non-existent "doctrine".

According to the Great Forsyth, there is a doctrine of the acquis communautaire. This doctrine, he pronounces, is at the very heart and core of the EU. It supposedly specifies in absolutely clear terms that no power, once conceded by the nation state to the EU government in Brussels, can ever under any circumstances be returned.

Having thus misinformed himself, Forsyth demands haughtily of politicians that they should have heard of his "doctrine". Ironically though, they could hardly do so. It does not exist as a doctrine,per se.

For sure, there is such a thing as the acquis communautaire. This, according to definition is the:

… cumulative body of European Community laws, comprising the EC's objectives, substantive rules, policies and, in particular, the primary and secondary legislation and case law – all of which form part of the legal order of the European Union (EU). This includes all the treaties, regulations and directives passed by the European institutions, as well as judgements laid down by the European Court of Justice.

The acquis, therefore, is not a doctrine. It a body of law, etc., which arises from and is part of the European Union. What Forsyth is referring to is something else, something completely different – the EU commission's monopoly right of initiative, the doctrine that states that only the commission may propose new laws.

Since it takes a new law to repeal an existing law – only the commission has the power to dismantle that part of the acquis which comprises its primary and secondary legislation. And since the commission is cast as the Guardian of the Treaties, the objective of which is ever closer union, it will not do that in such a way as to reduce the acquis. That is another doctrine.

However, when it comes to the repatriation of powers, all this is totally irrelevant. For this to happen, it is not to the commission that the politicians must look, but to the treaties. These are matters for the member states. If they so decided, they could abolish the commission, and with it the monopoly right of initiative and the entire acquis.

Therein lies our problem. To repatriate powers, we would have to have an amendment to the treaties, or abrogate them, unilaterally if need be. For complex reasons, which we explain in this piece, the former is not going to happen.

In the case of the latter, parliament could abrogate the treaty tomorrow, if it so wished. Parliament is, after all, sovereign. It is a question of political will. And the will is not there.

Forsyth, however, typifies so much of the eurosceptic community, and thereby explains much of its failures. If the first duty of a general, according to Wellington, is to find out what is on the other side of the hill – the more general doctrine of "know thine enemy" - eurosceptics, Forsyth included, score a massive fail.

Most have nothing more than the vaguest understanding of the nature of the EU, its origins and its workings, their brains clouded by a fog of ignorance and incomprehension. Clear that fog and the issues become clear. We are in the European Union, and remain members bound by its rules, not because of the acquis, but because parliament permits it.

The European Union is not the problem. Parliament is the problem – and it is to there, not Brussels, that our wrath should be directed. The EU is not a matter of foreign domination, as so many eurosceptics wish to believe. It is what our parliament does to us. Everything else is babble.

When this is understood, we might start to get somewhere.

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Booker - by Richard...

The continuing saga of the stolen children, and then Huhne and the bailiffs dominate the Booker column. Of special interest is the story on bailiffs.

Recently, I asked of the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police whether he considered that this group of people were above the law. In the corporate view of the police, that would appear to be the case. The admit that the bailiffs can breach the law. Simply, they are prepared to do nothing about it. We are not surprised. That simply defines the battle lines, and the police are on the other side.

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Britain's most dangerous podcaster - by Richard... Saturday, November 05, 2011

Via Witterings from Witney, we have Radio Free Delingpole, starring the Booker North duo or, as Dellers says, "two of the greatest living experts" on the European Union.

It was recorded earlier this week for a US audience, but the podcast is available on the link above.