Saturday 2 February 2013

Referenda: A break-down of Democracy? Really?

I've heard a number of politicians this week referring to the referendum on EU as several things: bypassing Parliamentary democracy is one, a break-down of Parliamentary democracy is another.

In both cases there is an overwhelming assumption that Parliament has the monopoly on democracy. Apparently according to MPs, there is no other option to exercise democracy that through them.

How fucking arrogant of the entitled pricks to think that we, the people that put them where they are, can't be trusted to exercise democracy directly in a vote.

Friday 1 February 2013

The EU Debate: What's Missing?

I just caught the last few minutes of Question Time, where they debated a question about immigration from Romania and Bulgaria.

They totally missed the point that links all the problems in the EU: the dogmatic, authoritarian political approach to everything it does.

With immigration and national borders, it dogmatically follows the course of open borders and free migration, despite the problems it causes in the real world.

With the Euro, it dogmatically presses of with the "one size fits all" currency, despite the problems that policy has wreaked across Europe. Simultaneously crippling the poorer Southern states by burdening them with untenable levels of debt and the more affluent Northern ones who have to bankroll the whole project and end up reducing their overall prosperity..

The recent Horseburger scandal is another area where the EU forces each country to accept products from another member state, where the system assumes the quality of a product from one country is the same quality as from another, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. The Horsemeat scandal is not the first, Donkey meat having been found in meat products in the past. Despite this, the EU refuses to act.

In these and other areas the EU clings to political dogma, even to the point of almost killing the beast. It would rather stick to its guns and die than admit it was wrong.

This comes to the heart of why the British inherently dislike the EU: the lack of accountability. We stand for above all things fair play and hate most of all those that play unfairly, or don't heed sound advice. We hate those that plough on regardless, those that are reckless and wanton. That is the core issue with the EU, where it continues to follow a path to the point of disaster despite a chorus of voices trying to steer them to a safer course. Just look at the patently obvious disaster that is the common fisheries policy. The waste created by discard, one of the most heinous and unfathomable policies created by the EU. Despite senior voices calling for change, despite obviously working policies being enacted by neighbouring countries, the EU continues to fritter away the natural resource of the sea.

This is what lies at the heart of the problem the British have with the EU. This is something that the EU will never change. Its about time we accept that point, move on and leave the EU, it is not for us.