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Talmont

Listed below are comments made by Talmont between Wednesday, 23rd April 2008 and Monday, 1st September 2008.

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A serious summit 2:02pm on 01 Sep 2008 I'll take your 'craven' and raise you an 'appeasement'. Things don't look at all that happy right now from where I'm sitting in Warsaw. The fact that the whole thing is morally complex and that the US is in no shape to take the moral high ground only makes things all the bleaker.
A Polish No? 2:38pm on 02 Jul 2008 I always find it hilarious when people bring up the USSR as something that the EU is turning into. Almost invariably the ones to do so did not actually live in the Communist Block and have a cartoon-vision of what life was like there. They might as well be saying that the EU is turning into the Big, Bad Wolf. Also almost invariably such claims are linked to a nearly complete failure to appreciate the significance of representative democracy and the rule of law for the functioning of any normal democracy. This is not coincidental. A few years within the old East would have painfully taught them what happens when these are lacking. Given that this is thankfully no longer an option I would suggest that they go and read those who have had that experience such as the Polish MEP Bronislaw Geremek. I rather suspect it would make them into ardent europhiles.
A Polish No? 2:58pm on 01 Jul 2008 President Kaczynski is a lame duck, if you pardon the Polish-English pun ('kaczor' means 'drake' in Polish). His popularity within Poland is comparable to that of Dubya in the US these days. I think he should be taken to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal where I think he would be found to be in breach of the constitution. Not having a formal time limit does not normally give someone the freedom to withhold signing interminably. Something about justice delayed being justice denied and all that. Quite apart from that, however, all these problems are making clear how necessary the Lisbon Treaty is for the EU to be able to move forward. The Poles who know their history know that the requirement for unanimity is what paralysed their parliament in the eighteenth century, leading in the end to political collapse and more than a century of foreign control.
Way out in Flemish 6:54pm on 24 Apr 2008 Mark,
I suspect that there is no simple answer to the question you ask. But then, if there was, you wouldn't be asking. It is certainly nice to see the British trying to make an effort to assist those who can not speak the language. Given that I travel a lot around the EU I have very often had the experience of being somewhere for a day or two and not being able to read the signs. In the times when people would only go to another country for a longer period it might have been realistic to expect the visitor to learn the language to some degree. In today's world we have to make to with various partial solutions to an ever more significant problem, however. Of course, very often the solution is to have signs in English, the new lingua franca. Which, of course, brings us back to Dutch.
Barroso squares up to Berlusconi 6:37pm on 24 Apr 2008 ScepticMax,

Thank you for your explanation regarding the presence of antiEU opinions on this blog. I take it from what you say that you think either that papers such as The Sun or Daily Mail are not mainstream (though their circulation would lead me to think otherwise) or that they are not open to antiEU views (though their contents would appear to strongly suggest otherwise)? Or is it simply that such papers are not open to debate on the EU (a claim I would be much more likely to agree with)?
As for the number of people in the UK with antiEU views, I am aware that the number is very high. However, I suspect that it is not as high as you think not, for that matter, as low as I think. As for the UK leaving the EU, I have three reasons why I hope they will not. The first is that I like visiting the UK and this would probably make things a bit more difficult. The second is that if it resulted in less trade between the UK and the EU it would adversely affect the UK economy. And the third reason is that the British would lose the ability to affect decisions which will, in one way or another, have a great amount of significance for their well-being.
Finally, as regards market fundamentalism. You, once again, fail to deal with the claim I make. I did not say that market fundamentalists are psychotic maniacs hell-bent on destruction. My claim, I once again repeat, was that market fundamentalism is the most dangerous form of fundamentalism. Consider the scenario where you have a knife-wielding maniac and a corrupt hospital administrator. Who is more dangerous, overall? Probably the administrator as his actions may lead to the deaths of dozens of people over many years while the maniac will, most likely, be quickly caught. Similarly, the effects of market fundamentalism are, for a number of reasons, likely to be far more detrimental in the long term than those of any other kind of fundamentalism.
Barroso squares up to Berlusconi 6:53pm on 23 Apr 2008 ScepticMax, the point you make is irrelevant to my claim. I am as worried about religious fundamentalism as the next guy. Indeed, I am worried about it regardless of whether it exists in the Middle East or the Mid-West. However, my claim was that market fundamentalism is the most dangerous form fundamentalism takes, not the only dangerous form it takes. Now, would you like to argue against the claim I made or against the claim you wish I'd made? The question that I really wonder about, however, is why Mr. Mardell's blog attracts such a high number of people who have such strindently anti-EU views.
Barroso squares up to Berlusconi 2:54pm on 23 Apr 2008 Buzet23, I have to say that I really like your idea of copying the US economic and political model. Given what their captains of industry such as Cheney and Rice have achieved there over the last eight years by allowing short-sighted greed to rule, this kind of approach, if applied throughout the world, might be capable of stopping the biggest threat humanity is facing. I am speaking of global ecological degradation, of course. It is true that the effect may only be achieved on this model through the implosion of the world economy and the resultant social chaos leading to a sharp fall in the production of pollution but this may be one of those rare fortunate cases that what is wrought by the invisible hand of the market in the short term, will end up being best for the planet in the long term.
Now, removing my tongue out of my cheek, I have to say that market fundamentalism is probably the most dangerous form of fundamentalism in the world right now. And, yes, I do realise that the destruction of the world economy would not necessarily lead to positive environmental effects. The major advantage that politicians have over captains of industry is that we can vote them out.

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