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RGruenebaum

Listed below are comments made by RGruenebaum between Monday, 8th June 2009 and Monday, 22nd June 2009.

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Lisbon: A Pandora's box 7:39pm on 22 Jun 2009 One would think that the Brits have enough on their hands sorting out the democratic black hole of Westminster. But I forgot, of course, the essence of British europhobia: The europhobes just do not accept the other Europeans as equals and do not want to take decisions jointly. Fine by me. Just leave! (if you need guidance: Vote UKIP at the next general elections.)
Labour's long night of painful firsts 4:36pm on 08 Jun 2009 @StuartC (No.8)

I hope you have checked your bold statement with the Greens. I don't think they share a lot of EU positions with UKIP or the Tories. The other two parties you mention remained invisible in the results.

I would also like to remind you that the question of EU membership is a problem of the British. They decide whether they want to be in or out. Democratic principles would require that you vote on this, blog contributions are of no relevance. Let's see whether in the upcoming general elections (a) EU Membership will be an issue, and (b) a clear picture evolves.

What the rest of Europe will no longer accept is that the UK blackmails the EU with vetoes, red lines and other nationalistic crap. After more than 35 years of EC membership the UK still hasn't managed to organise a mature and fact-based debate. It's so pathetic that nobody outside the small circle of Little Englanders listens anymore. The EU will certainly move on and will leave the UK to manage its increasing political and economic disintegration.
March of the right 2:49pm on 08 Jun 2009 It's certainly worth some deeper investigation why the UK and the Netherlands, two rather tolerant societies, are sending fascists to Brussels while those characters performed dismally in France, Belgium or Germany. But I doubt that the BNP will make any impact in Brussels (they are more likely to end up with the Belgian police I guess) and they certainly will not find friends. How do make friends with guys who think that they are racially superior to you when they are so obviously not?.

Let's face it: The British result is the odd one out in this respect, and it is more a reflection of the unreformed English class society. Otherwise it's pretty much in line with the European trend: Conservatives up, Greens up, Liberals stable, socialist down.

If press coverage about the EU would be halfway fair in the UK it would probably all be rather similar to the rest of Europe.

Having said that I must praise the BBC for the coverage of the elections and the election night. This is the best political journalism in the world and no other country came close yesterday. Very professional, indeed.

P.S. With Mrs Andreasen now a UKIP MEP, I hope journalists are finding out more about this shady character.
Eurosceptics triumphant 09:02am on 08 Jun 2009 Sorry, Mark, but your analysis is weak. The result of the EP election is clear: Gains for the conservatives across Europe and for the Greens. The right wingers lost. A clear win for the pro-EU groupings! Certainly not a "trememdous night for those who question the EU's existence".

You can look at some anecdotal evidence such as UKIP or Mr Wilders' party or the FPÖ. But Mr Wilders won't go to the EP and his 4 representatives need to be compared to the 16 French Greens under Cohn-Bendit. The Austrians have always been a bit on the Nazi-side and provided history's most criminal political export with a certain Adolf Hitler. But they are also pretty ineffective when it comes to power-games. The right-wing anti-EU groups will be desorganised and have very little impact in the EP as before.

I would also point out that in Germany, the by far largest EU Member State, the right wing groupings did miserably (as in France or Poland). Arguably, French, Polish and German results are more important than what happens in Bulgaria or Latvia.

UKIP is a very ineffective outfit in Brussels as you know. The most bizarre thing about them is that their key objective - getting the UK out of the EU (which I share but for other reasons) - cannot be organised through the EP. It would need to be organised in Westminster. But due to the UK election system UKIP will not achieve any number of seats in the House of Commons. UKIP in the EP is largely irrelevant and only provides work for the public prosecutor. I also doubt that 20% of votes for UKIP actually means that 20% of the British electorate wants to leave the EU. On this question, we can only speculate.

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