Amidst the various comments on Politicalbetting.com concerning the election of Nick Clegg as leader, there came this rather priceless contribution:
"Clegg is a fully-paid up member of the new European elite who want to replace democratic government by a kind of bureaucratic authoritarianism, in which all important decisions will be taken by unelected committees of technocrats.
This will of course be disguised by window dressing such as the fatuous ‘Town Hall Meetings’ you describe, as well as ‘regional assemblies’ and other such nonsense.
It’s surprising he made his position so obvious though - a serious gaffe.
Runnymede December 19th, 2007 at 1:08 pm"
As I commented later in the thread, this is why it is really hard to take the Conservatives seriously on the subject of Europe. It is this kind of dribbling, barking-mad Europhobia is like dealing with “Mother” out of Psycho- always this twitchy, defensive weirdness keeps coming out.
As Churchill once said, “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject”.
There is a lot wrong with the way the EU works, but attacking those who support the basic idea of a pan-European organisation in these almost demented terms is just not going to do anything but make you look strange.
What bothers me even more is that Gordon Brown, through his rather pathetic antics to avoid being seen together with the other signatories of the reform treaty, even gives their barking-mad ramblings some peculiar resonance.
"Clegg is a fully-paid up member of the new European elite who want to replace democratic government by a kind of bureaucratic authoritarianism, in which all important decisions will be taken by unelected committees of technocrats.
This will of course be disguised by window dressing such as the fatuous ‘Town Hall Meetings’ you describe, as well as ‘regional assemblies’ and other such nonsense.
It’s surprising he made his position so obvious though - a serious gaffe.
Runnymede December 19th, 2007 at 1:08 pm"
As I commented later in the thread, this is why it is really hard to take the Conservatives seriously on the subject of Europe. It is this kind of dribbling, barking-mad Europhobia is like dealing with “Mother” out of Psycho- always this twitchy, defensive weirdness keeps coming out.
As Churchill once said, “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject”.
There is a lot wrong with the way the EU works, but attacking those who support the basic idea of a pan-European organisation in these almost demented terms is just not going to do anything but make you look strange.
What bothers me even more is that Gordon Brown, through his rather pathetic antics to avoid being seen together with the other signatories of the reform treaty, even gives their barking-mad ramblings some peculiar resonance.
Comments
The purpose of NATO was to address a military threat, and, since you mention it Martin, although many 'Europhiles' cite the EU as having created peace on the continent since 1945 - NATO deserves much of the credit.
Wheatley