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RCalvo

Listed below are comments made by RCalvo between Monday, 5th October 2009 and Monday, 26th October 2009.

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The fight over a Blair presidency 09:19am on 26 Oct 2009 The important thing about the opposition against the Blair candidacy is that it is so broad. Pro-EU continentals are against it, as are anti-EU Brits (except the most cynical who see it as yet another way of discrediting the EU). Left-wingers are against it, as are right-wingers. Usually, opposition from both extremes is a good signal that a compromise is well-centred. But in this case, the "extremes" are so broad, that it's difficult to believe there is any centre ground left to defend. The only argument that the (scarce) defenders of the Blair candidacy can put forward is that the president of the EU Council must be a "Big Beast". Apart from the fact that this is arguable, this disingenuously presumes that Blair is the only big political beast available. Mary Robinson and Mahti Ahtissari, to name but two other potential candidates, are both better qualified and far less controversial. And if you are looking for a consummated political operator, then arguably Jean-Claude Juncker is your man (also, his sarcastic wit is far more quotable than Blair's inane management-speak. For instance, about bankers: "They hold me in about as much regard as I hold them.")
The BNP and the white working class 2:15pm on 22 Oct 2009 "He said the white working class was probably the only section of society that could be openly abused. They could be called "trash" or "chavs"' and no one objected."

Those BNP voters aren't alone in often feeling ignored by those who govern us. Most voters (me included) feel the same, and still would not vote for something as nasty as the BNP. Regardless of how badly let down by politicians you feel, voting for a party that you yourself acknowledge to be racist is quite despicable.

I'd certainly object to the entire white working class being called "chavs" or "trash", since that would be undeniably classist. But I wouldn't object to such BNP voters being called chavs, just I wouldn't object to criminals of any race to be called criminals.

BTW, what does this post have to do with the avowed subject of this blog, Europe? Doesn't the Beeb protest too much in defending its decision to invite Nick Griffin to QT?
The power of unemployment 1:08pm on 22 Oct 2009 Eurosider@18:

I don't work for the European Commission. In fact, it has never held much appeal for me. Neither do I work in a field directly related to the EU. But I am aware of the EC's recruitment requirements, since they are public, and they certifiably don't include being fluent in French. In fact, I have actually, personally met people who worked for the EC and who not just weren't fluent in French, but hardly could speak a word in it.

Neither am I French. Ironically enough, I've even been refused in one occassion the opportunity to be considered for a job (in France, not in the EC) because of not being French (although a fluent French speaker), so I am certainly not motivated by any misplaced Francophilia.

So, please stop the ad hominems and address the facts. Incidentally, if you look at the EC's job postings, you will also find out that:

a) Previous work experience is preferred, indeed *required* for most vacancies. If you walk into an EC building, the only people you'll find without previous work experience will normally be the interns. And they (generally) aren't the ones taking the decisions.

b) There aren't many vacancies for political science graduates (certainly not in the DG Competition!). Most graduates working in the EC are lawyers, economists and engineers.

Vicente-de-Lisboa@24: EuroSider doesn't appear to be a native English-speaker either, so I guess Boilerplated@29 is closer to the mark.
The power of unemployment 4:47pm on 21 Oct 2009 EuroSider@4 said:
"Perhaps what no-one in the U.K. understands is that you have to be French to work for the European Commission or at least fluent in French."

This is demonstrably untrue. The French are just a small minority of those working for the European Commission, and these days being French is a handicap more than an advantage for getting a job there, as most new posts are reserved for the "new member states".

As for being fluent in French, it is doubtlessly advantageous to be fluent in the second most common mother tongue (after German) in the EU. Just as it is advantageous to be fluent in any other widely-spoken European language. But it certainly isn't a requirement (unlike English these days). Are you sure this isn't all sour grapes?
The right to offend? 3:46pm on 16 Oct 2009 MrsMEvE @ 11 raises a very important point: Wilders is an enormous hypocrite. He demands that the Koran be banned, while at the same time shamelessly presenting himself as a defender of freedom of speech. Regardless of your views on immigration or Islam, if that isn't hypocritical, I don't know what is.

For this reason, it also seems important to me not to fall into the same trap as him, and to allow him full freedom of speech. Nobody can damn him more than his own contradictory rhetoric. To gag him is to do him a favour, especially as people like him thrive on victimism. Wilders, however, is not a victim: he is a privileged citizen of a privileged country.

Unfortunately, I must disagree with Mr. Hewitt on one point: Wilders IS an important person. While his party currently holds a relatively small number of MPs, opinion polls place him in a good position for the next election. He moreover, together with a handful of other Dutch politicians, like Rita Verdonk and the late Pim Fortuyn, have given the once excessively PC Dutch political climate a rather noxious flavour these days. (It must be said that I am talking about three very different people, though: while it was difficult even for his opponents not to feel a sneaking admiration for Fortuyn, and he could hardly be called an hypocrite, Wilders is a much more limited single-minded ideologue although one with a faithful following, and "Iron Rita" is a serial bumbler who hardly commands any respect from anybody these days, not even from the far right).

The views of foreign observers of Wilders are often only based on "Fitna", which, by many accounts, is a rather tame film, especially compared with the rhetoric which Wilders regularly uses in campaign. Don't be mistaken: he IS an intolerant extremist.
Plotting Czech-mate? 5:56pm on 09 Oct 2009 So, apparently what Klaus wants is to deny the Charter of Fundamental Rights to his fellow Czechs. This on the spurious (but sadly predictable) grounds that it would open the door to damage claims by the decendants of ethnic Germans who were expelled/murdered after WWII.
If I was Czech, I'd demonstrating against this usurper right now.
BTW, MAII, congratulations for your President's deserved Nobel Prize! As a proud American, you must be overjoyed today!
Plotting Czech-mate? 10:09am on 09 Oct 2009 Matonge@54: "It was also clear that he will do anything possible to stop it, inside the legal possibilities of a president."

Trouble is, by setting his own conditions (on whose mandate?) for signing the instrument of ratification of a treaty whose ratification has already been voted in Parliament, he's AFAIK clearly overstepping those legal possibilities and the Czech constitution.

proceednet@58: "The civil war may have ended being remembered as a battle against slavery, but it began as an issuse of States Rights."

And was thankfully won by those who thought that Human Rights are clearly above "State Rights". Thank you for so clearly putting Klaus and other assorted Europhobes in the same dustbin of history as the proponents of slavery and racial discrimination.
Will Czechs disappoint Tories? 4:42pm on 06 Oct 2009 Reaper@127: "... a clarification - of my post #126 (referring to post- admittedly the election of President Klaus was by the Czech parliament, similar to our Prime Minister - but for a fixed term."

By that measure, the President of the European Commission and the individual Commissioners are also elected, since their appointments are voted by the European Parliament. Yet we keep hearing them being called "unelected officials" by the anti-EU crowd.

You can't have your cake and eat it. If Klaus is "elected", then so is Barroso. If Barroso is "unelected", then so is Klaus. (Not that I like either much - politically they aren't very far apart, and if Barroso hadn't his current post, he'd probably be almost as much of a populist nationalist as Klaus).
Pressure for a UK vote 09:22am on 06 Oct 2009 threnodio@37:

All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?

(with my respects to Monty Python)
Will Czechs disappoint Tories? 4:57pm on 05 Oct 2009 Isenhorn@119: I don't think that a British "NO" to the EU would break the UK. Cameron's worry is rather that it would break the Conservative Party, with the more pro-business wing and the anti-EU wing fiercely battling each other in such a campaign. That's why he's instead probing the possibility of launching a campaign on the economic and social charter, which the CBI hates with a passion.
The trouble with such an "à la carte" approach of launching referenda on the bits and pieces of the EU which the Tories most dislike, is that it could give Alex Salmond and his SNP some ideas, and *that* could be troublesome for the future of the UK.

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