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Party Politics
Devil's Kitchen points to Trixy who points to an article by UK IP leader Nigel Farage about reports that Portugal is banning political parties with fewer than 5000 members.
Bagism
In 2002 the Republic of Ireland inaugurated a 15-cent tax on plastic bags to end what was termed a "litter menace".
Coffee Break
It was a quiet morning at the Starbucks coffee house. The only problem was that it was in Saudi Arabia.
The Price Of Perfection
How did four grammar schools with "near-perfect" results end up listed as being among the 100 worst schools in Britain, according to the government's new league tables?
Surveillance Societies
Email intercepts, spy drones buzzing over housing estates, wire taps leaked to journalists... it sounds like a science fiction dystopia: Welcome to Europe 2008, home of what German protestors are calling Stasi 2.0.
France Doesn't Back Blair
Well, that didn't last long. No sooner did a rising chorus of disapproval spread across Europe following Nicolas Sarkozy's declaration of support for Tony Blair to become the EU's first President, but France's EU minister has changed tack to claim that Paris has "no preferred candidate" for the post.
The Anti-Constitution
Has Europe crossed the Rubicon? The Lisbon Treaty signals the end of constitutionalism in the EU
The Lisbon Treaty (formerly the EU Constitutional Treaty) will be shortly by confirmed by Britain's Parliament, with barely a whisper of dissent. Indeed, most readers with an interest in the progress of the treaty through the "Mother of Parliaments" will have had to go looking for information on the debate: Few newspapers or broadcasters have bothered covering the debate with any vigour, possibly because the government's parliamentary fixers have ensured troublesome amendments have been sidelined and dropped from the debate.
What debate the treaty has attracted has missed the point. Supporters of the treaty who want to play down calls for a referendum argue that it is not a "Constitution", that much of the alleged constitutional elements of the treaty were dropped following the French and Dutch rejections of the Constitution. Opponents counter that the Lisbon Treaty does indeed create an EU Constitution, and as it alters the status and relationship between London and Brussels, it must be put to the people.
EURSOC goes further: The Lisbon Treaty is neither a constitution nor a mere "tidying up" exercise. Instead, it is an "anti-constitution".
The Mystery Of The Missing Cigar Case
London Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is coming under investigation by police following the alleged "theft" of a cigar case supposedly belonging to former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in 2003.
Conservative candidate Johnson is claimed to have found the leather cigar case in the ruins of Aziz's Baghdad villa and taken it as a souvenir. He wrote about his exploits in The Telegraph shortly afterwards.
The EU's Omerta
“This Parliament is a paradise of unjustified privileges and possibilities for real cheats. It is a central problem for democracy and credibility in Europe.”
You will doubtless be unsurprised to hear that Euro-MPs from the EU Parliament's budgetary committee voted against revealing the contents of the secret fraud report to the public.
The report shows how some Euro-MPs abuse staff allowances of up to €17,000 a month to pay family members, or pocket it themselves.
Those defending the code of silence said that the budget committee's work would be jeopardised if the document was made public; it was claimed that some information would not be forthcoming if it was likely to enter the public domain.
A Hero To The Left?
British Labour MP Harriet Harman put her dainty foot in it earlier this week by describing Fidel Castro as "a hero to the left" (though she did add that it was "time for Cuba to move on" - I'm sure they're delighted with her advice.
Freedom House has a few statistics on this hero's marvellous legacy.
Worse Things Happen At Sea
The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, had a cunning plan for a 'Mediterranean Union'. It was one of the key points of his victory speech on the night of the presidential election. Those nations with shores bordering the Med - including France, Italy and Spain but also Cyprus and Israel, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya - should bring their common historical and cultural heritage into a formal "Club Med".
The Tories And Security
A couple of security policies
Following the RUSI bombshell on the strategic challenges facing Britain in the forthcoming decades, David Cameron's security spokeswoman Baroness Neville-Jones told press that the Conservative leader was due to make a speech calling for the creation of a US-style "National Security Council."
Lady Neville-Jones gave one of the most robust responses to the security report, which damned the ideological policies Britain had followed for more than a decade which had put the country under risk. While Labour MPs dismissed the authors' findings and their attack dogs in the press dismissed the compilers of the report as colonialists, she echoed the report's attack on multiculturalism and its calls for a unified response to threats from both within and without the UK.
A speech the following week (18-24 February) by her boss would crystallise these plans, she added.
Clucking Hell
Thanks to England Expects, here's the full UK Independence Party's "Chicken Run" video chronicling the party's adventures in the EU Parliament as the Lisbon Treaty was voted through.
Isn't "Teacher's Pet" Richard Corbett MEP such a soppy wet weed for whining about the UKIP's antics?
The Fan Hits The Sh*t
Look out below! Here's one of Denmark's 5,500 wind turbines coming a cropper over a field in the east of the country during a severe gale.
Danish news says that the turbine was an old model in need of replacement: Nevertheless, they're built to withstand the most severe weather. One would certainly hope so, as it can get quite choppy off the British coast, where the government plans to build hundreds of the buggers in the hope of bringing UK renewable energy levels up to something like the 20 percent the eco-conscious Danes enjoy.
The Future's Mobile
Interesting news from Google. According to the FT, the search engine giant has seen 50 times more searches on Apple‘s iPhone than any other mobile handset.
50 times. Seth Weintraub explains that this isn't hugely surprising, given the iPhone's web-friendly nature. iPhone comes with a forfait which encourages portable web use, plus its browser is far and away the best of any handheld device.
France's Prime Minister is a fan: Here's the "branché" François Fillon unplugged in his office, showing off his new toy.
Vampire Cameras Target Lone Drivers
Eastern Europe 1950s... Britain 2008
Now here's one even Orwell didn't dream up for 1984: Authorities are investing in cameras designed to sniff out blood in order to ensure drivers are not abusing "car-sharing" lanes by driving alone.
A Familiar Landscape
London Mayor Ken Livingstone's animated election ad (currently running on EURSOC, click one of our stories to see it) features a very familiar view (above).
Is Ken a EURSOC reader? Perish the thought. Here's his site, anyway. We prefer our EURSOC chick in the top corner to Ken's newt-like mug.
Asset Stripping
British government announces plans to seize assets belonging to suspected drug dealers on arrest
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith revealed the latest government encroachment on British civil liberties in her "Ten Year Plan" on drug crime. Suspected drug dealers will have "high value assets" such as cars and jewellery confiscated on their arrest to prevent the accused from "dispersing" their assets when on trial.
Eurosceptic Targeted In Funding Scam?
Britain's most outspoken anti-Brussels Euro-MP has been accused of paying his son to work as an assistant, despite the 19-year-old being a full-time student.
The Times reports that the UK Independence Party's Nigel Farage is being paid via has father's EU expenses allowance. The newspaper adds that the revelation comes at an embarrassing time for Farage, as he has been "an outspoken critic of MEPs exploiting the EU “gravy train”".
UPDATE: Farage has denied the Times claim. See remarks from reader Trixy in the Comments section below for the UKIP Statement. Thanks to Trixy for sending this in.
EU Continues To Smother Fraud Report
Officials at the EU Parliament claim that they haven't called in fraud inspectors to investigate the secret report they've locked up and assigned security guards to because, they say, they don't think it shows fraud.
Those few Euro-MPs who have read the report and are willing to talk about it are spitting with disbelief: Here's Chris Davies (UK, Liberal Democrat):
“I think if names were attached to some of the cases of malpractice highlighted, then prison should follow,” he said. “Maybe when some MEPs are named, exposed for defrauding the Parliament and the public and are sent to prison a more acceptable approach will be adopted.”
Saying No To Blair
What unites far-right nationalists, swivel-eyed Eurofanatics, neolithic Communists and muesli-munching Greens? A shared determination to ensure Tony Blair is not crowned President of Europe.
Rod Liddle is excellent on this in the Spectator. As usual with Liddle, there's just too much good stuff to pull out the odd quote, read the lot.
Lost In Space
If you have ever travelled recently with what was once trumpeted as 'The World's Favourite Airline' you will know what I mean. And you will know it is British Airways (BA).
"Film Crews Should Not Film Dissent"
"The film crew are employees of the (European) Parliament and they should not be used to film dissent" - Anne-Margrete Wachtmeister, Head of the Audio Visual Unit in the European Parliament, to a freelance journalist.
The hack was interviewing UKIP's Nigel Farage, who was leading a protest against the Lisbon Treaty.
EU To Ireland: Go F*** Yourselves
Ireland is the only EU nation which guarantees its citizens a vote on the Lisbon Treaty / EU Constitution. However, the EU Parliament has just voted to ignore the results of the Irish referendum.
According to England Expects, Nosemonkey and Devil's Kitchen, 499 Euro-MPs voted against the amendment which would "Undertake to respect the outcome of the referendum in Ireland."
Only 129 voted to respect the will of the Irish voters. 33 abstained, including most British Conservative MEPs. Most UK Independence Party Euro-MPs voted to respect the Irish vote, the British Labour and Liberal Democrats effectively told the Irish where to shove their referendum.
The EU's Chamber Of Secrets
Reading the committee report
A secret room in an undisclosed location protected by biometric locks and security guards. Those few who enter can only do so after signing confidentiality agreements, and are prohibited from discussing what they discover inside. It sounds like something from spy series Alias or the fantasy Da Vinci Code. What could provoke this kind of security paranoia in the real world? The codes for the US nuclear arsenal? China's secret space program?
No: The secret room houses a confidential dossier on the "extensive, widespread and criminal abuse" by Euro-MPs of staff allowances, so explosive EU parliament figures are terrified by the damage it could do should its contents be revealed to the public.
News Round-Up
A Beer for Barack: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has a beer named in his honour in Kenya, reports the BBC. It's called Senator Keg Lager and was launched in 2004 when Obama, whose father is from Kenya, was elected to the US Senate in 2004.
Government school inspection body Ofsted announced that languages such as Bengali, Mandarin and Arabic should have the same priority in schools as traditionally taught languages such as French, German and Spanish. "Languages spoken by minority communities in Britain must be given more prominence on school timetables, bringing them into line with the major European languages," the Telegraph reports.
Mandarin, yes, we can see. Arabic... well, there'll always be a job in the intelligence services. Other "community languages" are more difficult to justify as high priorities for British schoolchildren. It is not as if these languages need the state's support to prosper, or if they are required to ensure a rounded understanding of British and European culture.
Crazy Britain continued: A shopkeeper who killed a robber with the thief's knife during a struggle could face murder charges, police said yesterday. He should be given a medal, not a murder rap.
Crazy Britain again: Camilla Cavendish has a harrowing story about how the state can forcibly seize children on dodgy evidence and take them into care.
Meanwhile, Germany is clashing with tiny Liechtenstein following reports that 1000 Germans have squirreled €4 billion in accounts in the neighbouring principality for the purposes of avoiding taxation.
Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel warned Liechtenstein to "quickly clear up" its attractiveness to outsiders. Liechtenstein's Crown Prince Alois retorted that this was "an unprovoked German attack" and said ""-Germany would do better to use it to sort out its tax system" which he said was "even worse than Haiti's".
Renault To Build Sarkomobile
It's somewhat gratifying to know that no matter how much time one spends in France, some aspects of the national culture can still appear mysterious. Did you know, for example, that left-wingers are said to favour Renault motors? Your correspondent certainly didn't, not until it was explained in an article in today's Guardian as one of the possible reasons behind Nicolas Sarkozy choosing the venerable car maker to construct his presidential transport.
Death In Venice
The Foreign Office has confirmed that Richard John Raynor, 23, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, has been discovered, dead, beneath a bridge near the Venice lagoon towards the Lido.
EU Tax Is Back
A prominent French politician has called (once again) for the harmonisation of corporate tax rates across the European Union.
Writing in EU policy journal Europe's World, UMP Deputy and Vice-President of France's National Assembly Marc Laffineur said the EU's budget must be reformed urgently, bringing to an end "special cases" such as the British rebate. Of the other "special case" of the Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidises French farmers to the tune of 10 billion euros a year, M Laffineur is rather less keen on urgent reform, arguing that "there is a common interest in ensuring that our agriculture should be highly-productive so as to guarantee food security for Europe's citizens."
The Public-Private Divide
So the government has "nationalised" troubled lender Northern Rock. Simon Jenkins has the best analysis, while Guido asks, "Whose home will Brown and Darling repossess first?".
England's Glory
The Independent recently ran a reader's competition to identify 28 of England's glorious cathedrals. Check out the slide show - it's very easy to forget that England boasts an incredibly rich heritage of cathedrals (61 in total), from the middle ages through to more recent constructions.
The government recently earmarked £2.1 million for immediate repairs to these magnificent buildings via English Heritage. The Independent says that the figure is "seems a paltry sum" but argues that for some cathedrals, it represents the difference between life and death. It is too kind: £2 million is a paltry sum, practically an insult to buildings which have represented English culture for almost 1000 years.
Sexy Sadie
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died on 5 February at the age of 91. Perhaps he is now in his heavenly transcendental Om sweet Om.
Dependence Day
John Rosenthal has a report on Kosovo's new-found "independence" which isn't really that independent at all, really.
Sarkozy On Side
Nicolas Sarkozy poll ratings have plummeted by more than 20 points since the autumn. Commentators have placed the blame variously on his divorce and subsequent marriage to model Carla Bruni, the meagre growth in French spending power and a failure to progress as quickly with his reform program as his supporters hoped.
Is Sarkozy's program - and thus possibly the final chance to reform France - lost for good? EURSOC doesn't think so; nor it seems does the IHT's John Vinocur, who looks at Sarko's chances of effecting a turnaround today.
Finally, despite their evident distaste for Sarkozy's public personal life, the French themselves remain convinced that he is the man for the job.
Castro Retires
Fidel Castro, the 81-year old Cuban leader, has announced he will not return to the presidency.
He handed power to his brother Raul two years ago, following an illness; he told Cuba's Communist Party mouthpiece Granma that the temporary handover was now permanent.
Multiculturalism and Security, Continued
More fallout from the Report from Britain's leading defence and strategy institute, which warned last week that the UK's fractured society had left the nation less capable of facing the terror threat.
The government quickly dismissed the paper, with defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, "strongly rejecting" its findings. Ainsworth described the paper as "extraordinary."
He told the told the BBC,
"There's a lot of nonsense talked about deference to multiculturalism. Who is deferring to multiculturalism? Who in our society objects to the basic premise that all of the people who live in our country owe allegiance to our country?"
EU-Approved Journalists?
Disturbing news from England Expects on the possibility of the European Commission creating its own European Press Card:
"It could mean that it would be the Commission which could decide which journalist were 'proper' journalists and which were not. I know personally of journalists who have been threatened and arrested on the say so of European officials. They are accused of publishing inaccuracies, they are told that 'what they write does not represent the interests of their newspapers'. I know of newspapers that have had their advertisers phoned by the Commission's legal team with suggestions about how the Commission is represented in the paper, and how it would be helpful if they were to have a quiet word with editorial team. I remember when Alessandro Buttice the lawyer who represents OLAF as its press spokesman sent out a 16 page document to the Brussels' press corps advising them of how they should report EU news.
"Access to Commissioners and officials could be restricted to those on the Commission list. Today there is European Institutional press accreditation, but any journalist who is vouched for by an editor is accepted. This new idea has a strong suggestion that the Commission itself will do the vetting not the news organisation and must be opposed as vigorously as possible.
"I cannot emphasise how serious this could be."
Licence To Smoke
Just when you thought the War on Smoking couldn't get any weirder. A government health advisory body, Health England, has proposed that smokers be forced to apply for an annual £10 permit before being allowed to buy cigarettes.
The body's chairman, Professor Julian Le Grand, said that the process of getting a permit should be made as irritatingly complex as possible in order to deter smokers from applying for their fix.
Kosovo Storm Warning?
Kosovo declared independence yesterday. Despite support from the EU and US, the move was fiercely opposed by Russia and Serbia.
Some commentators have raised fears about the unseemly haste with which independence was declared; true, Moscow, having dug its feet in over independence, was unlikely to give the EU/US/Kosovans the UN Security Council resolution they would have liked, but perhaps more could have been done to soften the blow for Serbia, which after all is losing what many in the country see as its spiritual centre. Thousands of Serbs still live in the north of the new state.
Moscow is keen to undermine EU unity on the issue.
Quote Of The Day
Mark Steyn on the death of Britain:
"I said a while back that I thought Britain was in danger of turning into Somalia with chip shops, that it’s a country that I think has been hollowed out by Islamism in many ways. What is particularly tragic about Britain is it’s a country that didn’t fall for any of the other great evils of the 20th Century, for fascism or communism. It’s a country that has probably contributed more in terms of its ideas to civilization in the world. That’s why there are over fifty English speaking countries, that is why English common law can be found all over the world, English ideas, Westminster parliamentary system. The dominant powers in every corner of the world, the United States, South Africa, Australia, India, descended from Britain.
"And the death of Britain, the sort of suicide of Britain, is a tragedy to watch."
- From an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Town Hall. Steyn also calls Dr Rowan Williams, Archmullah of Canterbury, a "weird, Welsh druid who’s been promoted way beyond his abilities."
Forbidden Fruit
It all went horribly wrong for Kate Badger of Wolverhamption (now a suburb of Birmingham) the day she sent an apple core out of the window of her car.
Ms Badger, a mother of three children, has been charged with: "Knowingly causing the deposit of controlled waste namely an apple core on land which did not have a waste management licence".
If convicted, this 26-year-old mother could be fined £20,000 or be imprisioned for six months.
Sitting Ducks
A very British coup from the UK's top military and diplomatic figures
Britain's leading defence institute has warned that the nation has become a "soft touch for home-grown terrorists" thanks to the government's failure to confront immigrant communities who refuse to integrate.
The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies urged the government to restore security as an absolute priority. Failure to "lay down the line" to immigrant communities, it claimed, had left "confused and vulnerable" Britain in a poor position to tackle extremism.
News Round-Up
Carla Speaks! - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (as she's now known) gave an interview to France magazine L'Express on her marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy. She's ready to be First Lady, she says: "I’m 40, normal, serious, conscientious, simple, even if I’m privileged". She found herself in accused of anti-Semitism after comparing attacks on the couple in the trashy French press with denunciations of Jews during WW2. She swiftly apologised.
Meanwhile, CB-S's husband is taking this Kennedy thing rather literally. 47 years after JFK pledged to put men on the Moon, Sarkozy called for an international effort to put a man (or a woman - possibly Cécilia? - on Mars.
Inner London tops the EU's list of most affluent regions. Is this the golden goose the British government is trying to kill off by introducing tax and surveillance for non-doms? It's probably due to some sort of EU pressure: The French in particular loathe the idea of citizens slipping their jurisdiction. A few decades ago, de Gaulle threatened to cut off Monaco's electricity if its authorities didn't force the French hiding out there to pay tax. Are they now leaning on London?
But do Paris and Brussels really believe that if London's wings are clipped, non-doms are going to high tail it back to Paris, Frankfurt and Milan? No chance. London (and Europe's loss) will be Asia or the Middle East's gain.
No wonder this embarrassing government is backpedalling.
More after the cut:
What We're Up Against
Britain's biggest ever protest, a march declaring opposition to the invasion of Iraq, took place five years ago. It's provoked a little discussion in the press, such as this column in the Guardian about the impact of the march beyond Iraq.
Who Killed Napoleon?
He was a boy from Corsica who made it very, very big. He made an attempt to conquer Europe, killing more than two million people in his military campaigns, including many of his own troops. His name is Napoleon Bonaparte.
Last Orders For Chicha Bars
Paris police have started raiding the capital's Chicha Bars - mostly north African establishments where locals get together to smoke hookahs.
Hookah bars were supposed to be subject to the same non-smoking legislation which came into force on January 2 in regular bars, cafés and restaurants. However, the bars were allowed a deferment by authorities - until yesterday. "Up to now, we had instructions to be tolerant", said the police commissioner, "Now, that's finished."
Danish Cartoon Plotters Arrested
Danish police have arrested three people they suspect of planning an attack on one of the cartoonists behind the 2005 caricatures of Mohammed.
Getting Sarkozy
Son of Sarko
Nicolas Sarkozy's son, Jean (21) is proving to be a chip off the old block. It looks like he has positioned himself on the list for the council elections for the rich Paris suburb of Neuilly, his father's old power base. And, in doing so, he stabbed a former ally in the back.
Sarkozy Junior led a revolt among centre-right UMP supporters against the President's handpicked candidate for the post of Mayor of Neuilly, David Martinon. Martinon, who is close to the President's ex-wife Cécilia and has served as Sarkozy's press spokesman, was "parachuted" into Neuilly as a candidate last year. However, he has proved to be such a dud that voters in the solidly conservative town have considered the unthinkable and selecting another candidate.
Enter young Jean Sarkozy. The golden-locked student (one of Sarkozy's sons from his first marriage) was one of the first to "break rank" and declare Martinon's candidacy unacceptable. An alternative UMP list now replaces Martinon, who has bowed out of the race.
Will Jean follow his father into politics? It's a little early for him to run for Mayor: His father won the job in 1983 aged 28. In an interesting parallel, Nicolas nipped into the post after outwitting a bunch of party heavyweights and persuading them to back him, rather than his boss Charles Pasqua who had fallen ill.
"I screwed them all", he is reported to have said afterwards.
A Civilian Surge
British foreign secretary David Miliband became a target of EURSOC's ire when he said he hoped that Britain could become a "hub of ideas" in the same way London is a financial hub.
He's since been laying out some of his vision, discussing the rise of China and the challenge to democracy this poses.
Yesterday, he spoke of the need for intervention by European nations. Put away your rifles, though: He steered clear of Iraq-style missions to impose democracy on other nations, but instead said Britain would consider the possibility of supporting "civilian surges", calls for democracy led by "literate, better-educated people able to access information and communicate with others".
That's a bit choosy. What he means is "led by People Like Us." What's wrong with calls for democracy led by peasants and steelyard workers? Or would this be a "dangerous populist uprising?"
Yes We Have No Internet
There is a common perception that the Internet is, more or less, infallible. Yes, there can be problems with your server but these can usually be fixed quickly.
And there is the myth that Internet communication is only by satellite. Recently we received a reminder of the fragility of the world-wide-web.
On 29 January two old-fashioned and fibre-optic cables beneath the Mediterranean Sea were damaged, apparently by ships' anchors north of the Egyptian port of Alexandria. (The transport ministry of the government of Cairo is in dispute).
A Different Prescription
Britain's National Health Service (NHS) has a new official remedy for the populous. Forget about jogging. Have sex. (I guess we knew it anyway).
Sarkozy To Sue Over SMS Claim
President Nicolas Sarkzoy's lawyer says his client never sent a text message to his ex-wife pleading with her to come back to him.
Last week, the website of left-wing news weekly Le Nouvel Observateur claimed that eight days before his marriage to Carla Bruni, Sarkozy sent a text message to former wife Cécilia telling her "If you come back, I'll cancel everything."
Something To Get Your Teeth Into
Britain's Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson announced last week a new push to add fluoride to drinking water. It's a matter which provokes strong emotion, with some dentists and government workers pointing to ranks of gleaming-gnashered children in regions where the water has been fluoridated for years, while others point to evidence that it can cause mottling of teeth, or even that the Nazis used the substance to pacify inmates of concentration camps.
More Dishonour In The Community
From the Independent: Police say 17,000 women are victims of "honour crimes" - including murder - every year.
If the notoriously PC UK police come up with this figure, it's a fair bet that the true number of honour crimes which go unreported, ignored or even covered up by police and social workers is much, much higher.
Something Smells Rotten In The State Of France
Another unforeseen outcome of France's smoking ban. That blue haze of cigarette smoke didn't just add to the atmosphere of the nightclubs of Paris - it kept them smelling good, too.
Talking Taliban
Britain has been flying Nimrod surveillance planes over the troublesome Helmand province of Afghanistan for some months, listening in to conversations between Taliban fighters.
The Taliban usually converse in Afghan Persian or Pashto, the two local languages. The Sun reports, however, that spies were startled to hear some enemy warriors speaking with broad English accents.
McCain Rolls: Romney Goes
Well, it's all over, for practical purposes, for the Republicans. They have their Presidential nominee. This past Tuesday, the 5th, America was treated to the spectacle / carnival / trainwreck of 20 states holding caucuses and primaries to determine to which candidate for President their delegates would be pledged. While Hillary Clinton edged Barak Obama for the Democrats, John McCain won in a walk. His lead was so commanding, that Romney would have had to win almost all of the remaining 20+ state primaries prior to the party convention this summer. These were odds Romney recognized he could not possibly overcome, and yesterday afternoon in a brief speech to a group of prominent conservatives, he bowed out. He did not, however, endorse any other candidate.
Blues For England
England is depressed. Consumption of Prozac and its equivalents has continued to increase throughout all counties. The situation appears to be beyond control.
Life On Mars
Pity the poor British newspaper reader munching his cornflakes with his morning rag. The front page has Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams calling for sharia law to be introduced into Britain.
Meanwhile, in the sports section on the back page, comes news that some games in England's Premiership football league are going to be played abroad.
They could be forgiven for thinking they'd woken up in an alternative universe.
Sharia Law "Unavoidable" For UK
It's hard to know where to start with the Archbishop of Canterbury's startling claims for the desirability of sharia law in Britain.
Dr Rowan Williams said yesterday that while he (clearly) opposes the dreadful crimes committed in the name of Islamic sharia law elsewhere in the world, he believes that Britons should get used to the idea of the system being used in Islamic communities for cases dealing with finances and weddings.
He added that Britain also needs to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens "do not relate" to the British legal system. He said Muslims are "Faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty" and that as a multicultural society, Britain's legal system needed to adapt to these new circumstances.
From The Horse's Mouth
Former French Prime Minister tells it like it is
Here's a quote from former PM of France, Edouard Balladur, in an article castigating Tony Blair for imagining that he would make a good European President:
"The EU's president must fulfil two conditions in order to carry out the role properly and to be accepted by everyone: first, to come from a country that is completely in step with the EU's forward march and that participates in all its different forms of co-operation; and, secondly, to be determined to build the independence of Europe, notably in the diplomatic and military fields."
I Spy
GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) is known as the world's best global eavesdropper.
They have a new impressive all-purpose glass-clad landmark building in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It is home to what is probably the most powerful computing facility in Europe.
This Britsh government organisation also has a 'retreiving and receiving' satellite dish at a secret location in the north-east of England which is greater in size than Westminster Abbey.
Sarkozy's SMS Plea To Cécilia
A French magazine claims to have an SMS text message from Nicolas Sarkozy which begs his ex-wife, Cécilia, to return.
Sarkozy, who married Carla Bruni on Saturday, is reported to have texted "If you come back, I'll cancel everything" (Si tu reviens, j'annule tout).
The message, published in the left-wing Le Nouvel Observateur, is claimed to have been sent just eight days before his marriage to Bruni.
It Couldn't Happen Here
Richard Littlejohn asks why Britain can't have inspiring politicians like Hillary, Obama or McCain.
Le inventeur de franglais est morte
The inventor of the term 'Franglais', Miles Kington, is dead. But his legacy is beaucoup endurable.
Meet Your New Alien Overlord
Blair's bid for EU Presidency snuffed out as Eurocrats rally to veteran federalist
He might have the backing of France's President Sarkozy, but Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to have failed to convince senior EU officials that he is the man for the job as the first President of the European Council.
Reuters is reporting that Blair's failure to bring Britain into the European mainstream during his ten-year premiership is one of the key reasons EU diplomats are opposing his candidacy. His support for the invasion of Iraq and his "divisive nature", because of his reputed affection for free-market principles, are also held against him in many European capitals.
Respecting British Culture
Defending Britain's tolerant Christian tradition can be a thankless task. Newspapers rarely publish positive stories about Christianity and reporting the latest events can quickly become a weary recital of a litany of wrongs against these islands' traditions.
The Lives Of Others
Is Britain on the road to becoming a police state? Simon Jenkins makes his case in the Guardian.
Year Zero
Here's Nicolas Sarkozy on the student revolutions of May 1968:
"May '68 imposed intellectual and moral relativism. The heritage of May 68 imposed the idea that everything has the same value, that there is no difference between good and evil, between the true and the false, between beauty and ugliness."
And, as Charles Bremner reports in The Times, he added it was responsible for:
"Political cynicism, short-turn profit-seeking by the financial world, distaste for hard work, the decay of French education, moral hypocrisy" (Bremner's additions) and "hatred of the family, hatred of society, the nation, the Republic."
Britain can't place its Year Zero to any particular date: It has instead been a slow grinding removal of ancient laws and traditions, of demonising the past, of fetishising the grievances of other cultures, of erosion of the nation-state and inverting of societal ties. What is true, however, is that the pace of this change has accelerated in recent years. We're not wholly convinced Sarkozy is up for the job of reversing France's decline, but at least he's trying. If only someone in Britain was doing the same.
Sarkozy & Bruni Win Ryanair Case
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni have won damages from budget airline Ryanair after it used an image of the couple in an advertisement in a French newspaper.
Mountain High
Nepal is the most poor country in South Asia according to a survey by an affiliate team under the auspice of the United Nations.
Clothing Carla
Put some trousers on, love, you'll catch a chill
The fashion editor in The Times bemoans Carla Bruni's dress sense, complaining that she's a "crashingly boring dresser" whose sartorial timidity means she is unlikely to win a place in Heat magazine's "worst-dressed" column. And you say that as if it's a bad thing?
She does admit, however, that the new First Lady could work wonders for France's under-fire fashion industry - a conclusion EURSOC came to some weeks ago.
Dishonour In The Community
"You might as well be in rural Kashmir"
Check out this story in the Telegraph about how entire communities are alleged to be covering up and assisting in honour killings and other violence in Britain.
A report by the Centre for Social Cohesion claims that "informal networks of taxi drivers, councillors and sometimes even police officers track down and return women who try to escape."
Adieu, France
Lisbon Treaty gets Versailles vote
French MPs have voted to amend their constitution to permit the adoption of the revised European Constitution.
The Past Is Another Country
Schools should not encourage patriotism or attachment to one's country, a new report by a leading educational think tank says, because "British history is “morally ambiguous."
"It is hard to think of a national history free from the blights of warmongering, imperialism, tyranny, injustice, slavery and subjugation, or a national identity forged without recourse to exclusionary and xenophobic stereotypes," claim researchers at London University's Institute of Education.
Quote Of The Day
"The point the Conservatives might like to contemplate if they are serious about wanting to be re-elected is one that we have made a few times before (and shall make again): we, the electorate, owe them nothing. Even those of us who dislike the present government and its disastrous policies do not necessarily think that the alternative would be any better, unless Her Majesty’s Opposition demonstrate this fact by their ideas and policies. Let me spell it out: while we owe them nothing, they owe us an explanation and a reason as to why we should vote for them."
- The EU Referendum Blog has some wise words on the failure of Britain's education system and the Conservative Party's inability to come up with useful alternatives.
Rare Not So Well Done
What's the motivation behind the BBC's caption for this story?
Certainly, the broadcaster might want to draw attention in its story to the fact that suicide bombings in Israel have dwindled (though it will not credit the "wall" Israel erected around Palestinian regions for this - perish the thought). But in the headline?
Were the London suicide bombings described as "rare" - they happen more often in Israel than in the UK?
Across The Universe
NASA has sent The Beatles into deep space. Of course, the song is 'Across the Universe', composed and sung by John Lennon.
The Devil's Best Trick...
The War on "Violent Extremism"
The Guardianreports on a new counter-terrorism phrasebook which has been drawn up by British government officials, advising civil servants to avoid the "aggressive language" of the war on terror. So terrorist acts are not the work of "Islamist extremism" or "jihadi-fundamentalists" but "violent extremists", "criminal murderers" and even simply "thugs."
The guide is designed to "avoid any implication that there is an explicit link between Islam and terrorism."
Pensioner Cuffed For "Theft"
Insanity Britain continues: A 72 year old man was marched out of a hardware shop in handcuffs after being falsely accused of stealing a sink plug.
Thomas Radcliffe had taken the plug with him to check its size against the B&Q store's stock. Staff accused him of shoplifting and held him while the police were called.
Two Sides To Every Serbian Story
Yesterday, Serbs voted the "pro-western" "liberal" Boris Tadic a second five-year term, defeating what the Guardian describes as the "extreme nationalist" Tomislav Nikolic. Other observers variously describe Nikolic as "hardline" and "pro-Moscow."
Hot In Herre
Patio heaters and an unforeseen effect of the smoking ban
Commentators on the EURSOC threads on smoking bans claim thousands of pubs face closure because of the ban; French cafés and nightclubs have seen business drop by 20 percent. Anecdotal evidence by our roaming reporter EURSOC Three suggests that numerous café and bar owners in the Paris region have a gloomy outlook on their future.
This weekend, your correspondent discovered another unforeseen effect of the smoking ban, which has driven French smokers from the bars onto the streets. Staying with friends who live on a street lined with popular bars and cafés, his hosts complained that since the ban was introduced, they have barely had a decent night's sleep: Dozens of smokers congregate outside the bar on the ground floor of their apartment block, and the noise of their gossiping and partying keeps them awake into the early hours.
Wii Leave?
Parents who spent the weeks before Christmas trudging up and down Oxford Street, searching in vain for Nintendo's must-have Wii games console will doubtless be delighted to hear that several of the hard-to-find consoles were snapped up by Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre.
According to a story in The Sun, Wiis are just one of the perks distributed to "dangerous foreign criminals" as they while away their time before deportation. Other goodies on offer include 48 inch plasma televisions, music rooms with top-of-the-range kit, and a scheme whereby inmates are paid to play football.
When poor little Jack and Chloe woke up on Christmas morning to find their stockings empty, little did their parents know that had they raised cut-throat Albanian people smugglers or fanatical terror supporters, Santa might have been more obliging.
Sarkozy, Bruni Wed
The French press has reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy married Carla Bruni this morning in the Elysée Palace.
François Lebel, the Mayor of the arrondisement where the Presidential Palace is based, told French radio that he had married the pair.
Carla Corner
Carla Bruni advertises for Lancia in an ad that has made France's left hot under the collar (for all the wrong reasons). Bang bang.
Smoking Ban Hits Bar Takings
A month into France's smoking ban and bar and disco owners are complaining about a severe drop in their income.
Where Have All The Reds Gone?
A poll for French Communist newspaper l'Humanité dimanche suggests that 59 percent of French citizens would like another referendum on the revised European Constitution (or "Lisbon Treaty").
Only 33 percent would prefer the treaty to be ratified by parliament, the government's preferred means of pushing it into law.
Staying With Hitler In Luxury
Hitler's 'death court' in Berlin has been transformed into luxury flats.
Smoke Screen
Smoke gets in your eyes but not in Bollywood - if the government of India gets its way.
A world-wide 'Don't Smoke' campaign (in various guises) has spread to India. The campaign is as insidious as smoking itself.
