How should the EU be governed? Eur Council vs Eur Commission

Re: ARTICLE III, AN EXECUTIVE


Setanta, you were very welcome to my thread while I was away <smiles>. But give me a moment to read all your posts before I respond (if necessary), 'K? :-D

When I read this I immediately thought, well, that's true ... and it was a welcome relativation, I thought. But I never wrote that down. After all, then ;-).

Nearly forgot about this thread

The latest (actually some hours old):

EU draft constitution agreed

The statement of the EU commission is to be found here:

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/836|0|RAPID&lg=EN;

(You'll have to copy the complete line, not just click on the blue text!!!)

Bully for the UN Draft Resolution. Now to fine tune it. c.i.

CI fine tune it ? The whole of MoTown with their best hats on couldn't get it up and running.

So, OAK, what yer sayin' is, they've designed a camel?

Camel--a horse designed by a committee . . .

Morning Setanta. Yep, a camel. I'm aware of the analogy.
I prefer Camels that come in cartons of 10 packs.

Have a good weekend

You too, Boss--i've got a great new dealer, cartons of Camels for less than $35.00--sorry, i can't drop the dime on my own dealer . . .

Setanta -------

The Camels are available in the UK tax free via a very nice man on the web in the Iberian Peninsula. About the same price as yours.

Cough cough

Now i'm jealous . . . used to live in North Carolina--seems cartons of Camels are always inexplicably falling off the truck--many local bootleggers--i used to get them for $5.00 a carton, in the mid-1980's . . . that'll never happen again . . .

Set. Back in the 70s I knew a bloke who's cousin knew a guy who worked at the USA Embassy in London and ciggies, king edward cigars, bottles of social lubricant were delivered every week
to us. His Xmas order was phenominal.

We get a lot of trucks with dodgy back doors, often see 'em parked outside pubs.

You know, olk, that Her Majesty's Custom work at weekends, too? :wink:

We can import ciggies walter and boooze quite legaly free of uk tax. that's why brits go on day trips to france and belguim were the sin tax is lower........

Yes, I know - 7/8 of any Calais/Dunkirk hypermarché is filled with wines, spirits, beers and Her Majesty's subjects.

It's just like home Walter, similar to brit. enclaves on the Costa Del Sol

Ehem, you the the other half of Costa Del Sol (and of the Canary Islands, Mallorca etc. as well), which isn't invaded by Germany and a couple Scandinavic, I think. :wink:

oak, I disagree - strongly!

I think that the underlying values and beliefs of the British are FAR more similar to those of other European nations than they are to our American cousins'.

I believe that this would be clear if you spent more time in the USA and discovered quite how differently the people there look at the world...that's what makes me believe that our future, like our history and geography, is predominantly European.

The fact that Americans speak (nearly) the same language as us Brits means that it's easier for us to find common views. If we were to speak more with our European neighbours, we would appreciate that the similarities are also there - on so many levels - and then there's view of life which comes from thousands of years of history rather than a few hundred years of pioneering and establishment of a country based in revolution, immigration, genocide and the cult of the individual.

KP

Do you suggest that those "thousands of years of history" were free of revolution, immigration, and genocide? In England or Ireland? France? Germany?

georgeob1,

I was being deliberately provovative.

Of course there were revolutions, immigration and genocide.

Revolutions - 1789 French Revolution springs to mind!

Immigration - there has always been movement of people (Britain is a mongrel country and has been for centuries)

Genocide - I cannot condone the actions of England in Ireland over centuries nor anti-minority reactions across the continent (most notably under the Third Reich and associated Axis powers)

However...

We have history which pre-dates all of these features, first recorded in any logical manner under the Roman Empire, grounded in a long history of castles, fiefdoms, powerful (and corrupt) organised religion, "Dark Ages", Renaissance, City States, inter-marriage of royals, slow development of the concept of universal plebicite and, particularly, a concept that cultural identity and place of origin are integrally intertwined.

It is because of this last point that the Euro faces its greatest challenge. Migration of labour from one European state to another runs at around 4%, unlike 40% in the USA. Most Europeans don't live outside the country (or even region) of their birth.

Without this movement of labour, it is very difficult for there to be a levelling mechanism to counteract the inappropriateness of a single interest rate across the continent.

KP