What is in it for the average EU citizen to vote in the upcoming EU elections? To answer that we must ask – what does the EU do for that same average citizen?
And the answer to that is not difficult to work out – nothing. Or even less than that – it gets in the way of the average citizen
If I want to go out and buy some of my local feta cheese – I can’t. If I want to drive my Finnish truck on European roads – I can’t. If I want to plant some sugar beet when I want – I can’t. Feta cheese is a ‘named’ product that can only come from a small part of Greece. So the biggest feta cheese producer in Europe – Denmark, is forced to call it’s cheese something else. Trucks built in Finland are apparently about 6cm too wide for European road standards, and so must either be trimmed down the side by that amount, or stay at home. And in the agricultural arena, if there is too much of one product in the EU, you are not allowed to produce it, even if there is a shortage in your local country. Again the Finns seem to prefer the quality of their local sugar beet, but the farmers there are not allowed to grow it because there is a surplus of inferior product elsewhere in Europe!
So tell me – what does the EU actually do for the average citizen: it hinders and obstructs and taxes them at just about every opportunity, for no real return.
There are three groups that benefit significantly out of the EU. Firstly is the politicians who otherwise would have no-one to listen to all their hot air and useless pronouncements. Secondly the multilingual circus of bureaucrats that is required to keep the whole organisation functioning. Note that they do nothing for anyone in Europe, they just shuffle the parliament backwards and forward between Belgium and France every couple of months, and translate every single document into every single language. Do you really think that the Italians or the Portuguese want to know the details of the Arctic reindeer policies? Of course not, but to justify their existence, the bureaucrats claim that the translation is required.
And the final beneficiaries are the people on the edge that have got the ear of the politicians. The lunatic fringe, the flavour of the month in charity causes, the losers who cannot survive on their own. These are the groups that live off handouts from the EU, from our taxes.
So who is going to vote this weekend? The bureaucrats who believe in the way of life they have become accustomed to, and the minorities who can not survive without it.
And with the notoriously small voting turnout in EU elections, these groups will get enough votes to ensure that nothing changes, and nothing threatens their precious parasitic lives.
As for me – as soon as I hear of a candidate who pledges to downsize this EU behemoth, I know where my vote is going.
I hope you’ll see some sense and do the same, its better for your taxes in the long run.
Middle East Peace? Not if Israel Has Their Way!
July 2, 2009 by goodtalkingYet again Israel hangs it’s violent, racist, fanatical and inflexible pedigree out in public.
On the one hand they are not prepared to slow down their illegal settlement activities while they negotiate for peace with Palestine. And on the other they continue to destroy all areas of Palestinian life.
They plan to build almost 1500 new houses in one of the West Bank settlements, using the relocation of 50 families from elsewhere as justification, taking control of more Palestinian land in the process. This almost sounds the same as what Mugabe did by taking possession of white farmers’ land in Zimbabwe – at least as violent and illegal. So why doesn’t Israel get the same attention and condemnation that Mugabe’s regime did? I’ve said it before (http://goodtalking.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/axes-of-evil/), and I say it again here.
Israel are obviously not prepared to let the peace negotiations proceed without substantially shifting the goalposts in their own favour using every means possible.
Meanwhile the borders to Palestine are kept closed, even to medical supplies and basic childcare requirements. These are not the actions of a country striving for peace. Clearly Israel has no humanitarian outlook, and takes no care to avoid unnecessary harm to innocent civilians. It has prejudged all Palestinians as terrorists, treating them as such, when all the Palestinians are trying to do is survive from day to day. This is exactly what the Jewish people endured prior to the creation of Israel as a country. And now the Jewish state takes revenge by brutalizing someone smaller than themselves.
All it would take to calm the situation down, to end the violence, the persecution of civilians is one thing: for Israel to stop what they are doing. I am not advocating a permanent cessation of all activities vis-à-vis the Palestinians and their land, just stop. Now. And start talking.
The basic fact about violence is that it needs two sides in order for it drag on unchecked. If one side is not fighting, the conflict will cease almost immediately. However it must be the dominant side that takes the first step. If it is Palestine that stops first, the last Israeli strike could cause considerable damage to what’s left of Gaza. Whereas if it is Israel that stops first, the last suicide bomb or missile will probably only knock a hole in a wall or two in Israel.
It is about time that the USA woke up to the extremist country they are supporting. Israel could not afford to survive without the huge cash donations it gets from the USA, but America is washing its hands of the actions Israel takes with American money to destroy Palestine. For how much longer must this go one?
The US says that the building must stop to enable a viable Palestinian state to emerge alongside Israel through negotiations. But what are the USA doing to add teeth to this political wet sop? Nothing. No restrictions on support to Israel, no sanctions, just talk. All hot air and nothing else.
Wake up USA, Israel only wants you for your money. They don’t care about anything else. The only way to get Israel’s attention is to stop the money. Forget the talk, the speeches of outrage, the media posturing – stop the cash!
Only when Israel runs out of American cash with which to raze Palestinian life will the region be able to make any progress towards creating a lasting peace for all peoples. Then they might be able to tear down the walls instead of building them higher.
Tags: Gaza, illegal land occupation, Israel, middle east peace, Occupied West Bank, Palestine, Ramallah, settlement, terrorist
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