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ZwarteSchaap

Listed below are comments made by ZwarteSchaap between Thursday, 13th November 2008 and Friday, 19th June 2009.

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Lisbon: A Pandora's box 8:34pm on 19 Jun 2009 26. At 4:16pm on 19 Jun 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:
odious threnodious,

"Can you name even one benefit the UK has derived from being a member of the EU?"

Yes, being able to buy tax subsidised Kiwi fruit from Spain and Italy for the same price, or perhaps a fraction less than, 100% organic, non-subsidised, less C02 producing Kiwi fruit grown and imported from New Zealand.

Whether the cost at times of having to import Hoki from same said country, because of the Cod stocks in the North Atlantic being decimated by the CFP, is a net benefit I'll leave to you.

The UK, England could do much better, not by looking to Europe, but by looking to some of it's former friends in the Commonwealth.
Will EU watchdog bite UK? 10:45pm on 17 Jun 2009 "Makes sense that the EU commission takes over some of this responsibility. Things have got to change in the financial markets and the EU should be at the forefront of this" - In heavens name why?? The same people who seem to have no interest in changing things like the CAP, where billions each year are wasted supporting this country or that on some political whim, or the CFP which has decimated fish stocks and at times seems to have no interest in enforcing it's own rules when they're breached if it suits their 'major players'.

"It makes sense, especially in a common market, to have common rules. More likely to succeed. Less bureaucratic than separate rules. By all means haggle over the details, but let's welcome the fact that 27 European countries are trying to find a common approach to this!" - Common rules?, that'll be the things like 'freedom of movement', work, recognition of qualifications and such like. No doubt that's why Belgium until recently issued automatic deportation orders against 'EU citizens' if they didn't meet their interpetation of 'freedom' (along with threats about what will happen when the police come round), quite often refused to issue ID cards for years (and all that entails), and where no single UK qualification is automatically, after 30+ years in the EU, recognised as qualifying someone to start a business... A Belgium high-school diploma is of course enough.

Common approach?, yeah...Belgium's Limosa laws where an 'EU citizen' can be put in jail for a year for working here just five days if they don't have the right 'paper'.
Will EU watchdog bite UK? 9:05pm on 17 Jun 2009 "The problem, as so often in politics" - Unfortunately that is the problem with the EU as too often has been the case. That any sense or claims of a higher ideal, of doing the best for everyone, in the end is more about what's simply best for 'us'.

As a former Europhile I might trust the EU to ensure such things were in everyones interests if it weren't for all the numerous examples where one supposed agreement or another is either enforced, broken or got round when or as it suits.
Miss you 8:08pm on 11 May 2009 "every reminder of home, from Marmite to the Sunday newspapers, is easily available in Brussels"

As I said a long time ago, Mark, you need to get out more! It's the sad fact of many an expat (Brusselaar/Bruxellois) that they think Europe is wonderful because of what they find there. A bit like Peter Mandelson's life, it's a different world.

"What do I miss from home? The chavs. There's just nothing like them here." Are you sure, or is this "Brussels" talking again. No doubt no people being stabbed, no 50 car windows
smashed in on a weekend (as happened at my work), no road rage, no bicyles dumped into fountains, no beer bottles thrown across a square for a laugh, no murders in kindergartens, no racism and all the rest. - belgianfrank

"The government are morally bankrupt and the whole political system needs changing but it will never happen; maybe one day - but I doubt it" See above. Some might say that in Flanders the whole culture needs changing. - mightychewster

"You are an example to us all. We are European!" Although in many ways we are, we are not. - magnificentFrankO

"In other words, if history is not written by Americans, it is not to be trusted. And three documents written hundreds of years ago, by massively wealthy slave owners who favoured their own style of a republic, will tell you everything you need to know about the great, glorious, gloriously great, peerless USA.

This rabid nationalism is what I have come to expect from Americans, even from educated and intelligent specimens." And so it is, that too many Europeans and Europhiles don't seem able to look outside themselves and see anything positive, and then look in and see what's not right. In my lifetime, my childrens, shall I ever see a person of African/Turkish/Asian/Moroccan origin become the first minister/president of European country? I doubt it. A news presenter perhaps, a famous actor/actrice, CEO, bishop/priest, rights campaigner, union leader or anything else...ja/bon, "peerless", what a joke...

MichaelB
A European Obama? 9:15pm on 13 Nov 2008 For me MarcusAureliusII and hjuneja sum things up best. Sadly many of the other posts having the look/sound of a red herring about them.

People like Jukka_Rohila suggesting that Europe is better because it has this social security system or another, or it's just a case of 'integrating' and how much help is available, is like Flemish people here telling me how they never had this problem or that while I, as a EU citizen, spent however many damn years (solicitors and all) fighting to get a card just to show I live here. Amazing how many of those 'opportunities' you can be locked out of when you're a 'foreigner' one way or another even when you speak the language.

Many here, as a Scottish friend said to me some time ago, 'just don't get it'. Barack Obama may have come from the left of the field, but the US, like the UK, has shown more than enough signs that electing someone from an ethnic minority could be possible. From people presenting programmes on television, to having their own show, to CEOs of companies like Yahoo and others, comedians, chefs, elected officials, spokes-people and God knows what. In most of Europe, with some exceptions, you'll be lucky to see someone from an ethnic minority or a 'foreigner' present the weather a few minutes a day, or be a 'co-presentor' for a few weeks during the summer holidays...in a decade.

Regarding the situation in the UK, while there still might be problems, for a start I'd suggest that Trevor Phillips looks up his namesake on www.100greatblackbritons.com, and anyone else there move to Europe for a few years and put things in perspective (if they're not a BNP supporter of course).

The day I see a programme like ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ on European television I might believe things have changed...

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