- Missed this: Jerome a Paris had an interesting revelation after attending a meeting with Jacques Barrot, EU Commissioner for Transport:
"the more he spoke spontaneously and on concrete topics, , the less he was on the official line, but without seemmingly noticing the contradiction. That official line is so ingrained in everybody that they don't even notice that they are effectively pushing the opposite of what they seemingly believe in."Yet more confirmation, as far as I'm concerned, that it's time for the EU to take a step back and work out just what the hell it is that it's trying to do. The old plans of the 1950s are obsolete; so are the plans of the 1980s - but no one has yet had the balls to propose the complete overhaul that it is becoming increasingly apparent is needed.
2 Comments:
Aren't you actually in agreement w the official line here? You never struck me as much of a leftie.
Personally, I'd say I'm pretty much a bang-on centrist, but most people seem to consider me on the left - you're a rarity in that.
Economically I probably lean just right of centre on most - but by no means all - issues. But then again, I hardly have what could be termed a coherent system of economic thought. Have a vague belief in the power of the market, but also like the public works ideas of Keynes/FDR/the fascists (erm... whoops...) - and have nowhere near enough knowledge of economics to work out if my desire for worker protection can be reconciled with my belief that too much protection is a very bad thing...
But anyway, the major thing is that whether I agree with the EU's basic thinking or not, it's currently doing the institution as a whole no favours as the message keeps coming across as muddled and inconsistent. This could be considered a good thing in terms of policy, as it shows flexibility and an ability to choose good ideas from across the political spectrum, but it is a disaster interms of PR and building popular support.
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