Bit of a surprise to check out an article in Irish Independent by Declan Ganley, the leader of the “No” campaign in the two Lisbon Treaty referendums, and find it a full-throated call for the immediate creation of a federal European state.
The proposition of a fully federal European Union fills many Europeans with deep concerns and I must say that it should. The idea that we would further centralise power to the European Union in its current form should be an anathema to any right-thinking lover of liberty and democracy.
In the words of David Hume, “it is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once,” but a further concentration of central power without accountability would be a very mighty step.
So Europe must now grasp the nettle of major reform, of ‘Treaty change’, to establish a Europe not of the now defunct and near literally bankrupt Lisbon Treaty, but one created ‘by the people for the people’, a Europe bringing us that only form of temporal governance that should ever be acceptable to free peoples, government by consent of the governed.
He does not mean, however, the British notion of a free trade association where everyone gets their own right to break the rules, on the contrary:
1. The position of president of the European Commission and president of the European Council should be merged into one office holder and should be made subject of a popular democratic election to be held on November 11th (Armistice Day) 2013. Voters should be weighted in an ‘electoral college’ type format so that smaller member states voters are not made irrelevant. This president would serve for one six-year term only and would be chairman and chief executive in the same manner as the president of the United States of America.
2. The Commission should become the servants of the Executive arm and be filled by nomination of the democratically elected president, and ratification of a newly created upper house or senate of the European Parliament.
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4. The European Parliament should be given the power (along with its upper house) to initiate legislation.
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8. The Union should have monopoly of external action both in soft and hard power.
This is radical stuff – and surprising, although Ganley has always been clear that his anti-Europeanism has been from the democratic rather than the nationalist perspective.
I wonder whether any British Eurosceptics feel the same way?
The Worshipful Guild of Free Cobblers
Now living in Streatham. Image via Wikipedia
People who believe they’ve had previous lives always seem to have been Cleopatra or Nefertiti rather than an acne-ridden donkey drover from Lichfield. In the same way, people who have discovered secret legal knowledge always discover things that enable them to do what the hell they like, while still having all the legal protections that the rest of us enjoy.
Enter the Freemen of Land “movement”, who (as described by law blogger Carl Gardner) think that if you don’t use your legal name, the law can’t touch you. In fact, they claim that they are in a state of lawful rebellion, and that this means they don’t need to pay taxes or repay debts.
I’ve always thought that this, like past life stuff, is a bit of harmless kookiness, even if with a darker undertone of paranoia. The language used reminds me a little of those Google ads for a “secret method” of tooth whitening or losing weight that a “young mum from [wherever I am]” invented and the capitalist pigs want to keep secret – yours for only £25+p&p.
So it was a bit of a surprise to see the Freemen make an appearance above the line on Comment is Free yesterday, as part of the Occupy CiF day.
I wouldn’t expect an article in the Guardian’s health section telling me about a miracle tooth-whitening formula discovered by a young mum from Camden Town, so I’m not sure why it was thought a good idea to publish an article which contains this utter nonsense:
Harmless nonsense? All views should be heard? Well, maybe. But this isn’t some random blog or forum, it’s the Guardian, and if we criticise the Mail for publishing utterly fabricated immigration stories for propaganda purposes, we should be even-handed and criticise the Guardian for putting its logo on this sort of rubbish. The Occupy CiF day was a good idea, and many of the articles were interesting (though the excellent Adam Wagner points to another dangerously wrong article in his blog), but occupied or not, a paper has responsibility for what it puts above the line.