tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post7574898713102916313..comments2024-02-21T08:52:55.878+00:00Comments on Your Freedom and Ours: Two steps forward, one step backHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13799545178433498944noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-16102618364716746662014-08-04T21:56:35.897+01:002014-08-04T21:56:35.897+01:00My post was not about Mr Cameron but about the eur...My post was not about Mr Cameron but about the eurosceptic community, so-called, who seem to be going round and round the same track. Helenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13799545178433498944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-89254841485580185542014-08-02T11:21:12.975+01:002014-08-02T11:21:12.975+01:00Excellent post as usual and very welcome. But I f...Excellent post as usual and very welcome. But I fear Mr.Cameron is so entranced by the EU that we will get no sense out of him or his "government". He will just push the re-negotiation meme until removed from office.derek.buxton1https://www.blogger.com/profile/07892239671837618514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-83783313679435503502014-08-01T14:14:02.506+01:002014-08-01T14:14:02.506+01:00There is a further element. The entire political c...There is a further element. The entire political class and media, led by state radio and tv, has spent decades telling us that withdrawal is “isolationist” and “risky”, and the preserve of extremist parties. But with things seeming at the same time to be going so badly wrong with the project, the logical suggestion by those who want to stay in at all costs (the entire political class etc) is to talk about ‘reforms’, however much they know these cannot be achieved. <br /><br />It is like the moment in that film Alien, when they had the opportunity to kill the Alien but its protector, posing as a friend to the humans, shouted “No”. He was in essence giving as his reason to the astronauts: “Don’t kill it, we can reform it”. And of course the natural tendency when faced with authority in this kind of situation is to demur and compromise, as your friend does. <br /><br />She and her predecessors can see the alien and know it is not friendly. But she trusts “that nice Mr Cameron” or “Mr Major” or whoever it has been down the years. “They are really on our side, you can tell”.<br /><br />And the interesting point about this is that you hear a lot from the political class and media about reforming the EU but nothing is ever really proposed in a concrete fashion which lists out very specific reforms and then gives a line in the sand to say: “if these reforms, clearly measureable, are not achieved, then we will have to leave”. Recent ‘targets’ set by the Prime Minister are imprecise and allow interpretation by those setting them to claim victory at practically any time of their own choosing. “Game set and match for Britain”. Much of what is said is vague and open to interpretation. It is just like all those other ‘re-negotiations’ – eg in the mid 70s and with the hapless Major government over Maastricht. <br /><br />But people like your friend would not be so inclined to make these mistakes were it not for the degree to which they have been intentionally misled for half a century as to what the EU really means, and the covert nature in which advances have been made and the degree to which critics have been dismissed contemptuously by most commentators and effectively silenced through marginalisation.<br /><br />As a result, the alien can carry on getting quietly bigger in the spaceship until it is, er, a little more difficult to deal with. Our successive Prime Ministers acting as the sly Antony Hopkins character, robot disguised as human, ushering forth the end result while affecting to be ‘on our side and one of us’. <br /><br />And of course when the alien starts going around battering everyone and chewing up the pet cat, your friend and her successors will still be wittering on about ‘working with our partners for reform…avoiding the extremist ground…we seem to be making some progress,” and even possibly suggesting that said alien's bad behaviour might indeed be our fault. <br />Damian Hockneynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-52018661092696464922014-08-01T08:31:53.549+01:002014-08-01T08:31:53.549+01:00History tells us that we do not learn from history...History tells us that we do not learn from history. In other words we rarely learn from our mistakes. To paraphrase someone more learned than I but unfortunately I forget who. We do not even learn at least not very quickly from the mistakes of others in the present.Antistheneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10120647617145756102noreply@blogger.com