Saturday 15 October 2011

No news is good news

so the saying goes, conversely we also know that, unfortunately, EU news is bad news.

First up is the news that Eurogendfor are carrying out an 'exercise' with the Greek police - advance apologies as the link is a 'google translation' from Greek, although the general gist of what has been written can be understood. Bearing in mind the recent demonstrations in Greece, the timing of this 'exercise' is questionable to say the least and it can only be assumed Brussels has decided that repression of the Greek people is necessary. In any event it would seem that they have practised the art of repression already in Brussels, using the Belgian police to hone their tactics on the 'Indignados'.

Next up is repression of the freedom of thought by means of 'teaching' the people of the EU about the 'benefits' that being a citizen brings them. At least that is what Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor believes when he states that citizens are educated about what are the costs of Europe, but they are not informed about what are the costs without Europe(That problem could easily be solved by an 'Andor' cost benefit analysis - but I digress) Graham Watson MEP wishes for the benefits of EU membership to be a core subject in schools, again believing that promoting the idea of not being a member is vitally important. On the same subject of what can only be described as propaganda, Mary Ellen Synon's post about the opening of the European Parliament's 'visitor centre', an article which is well worth reading. An extract:
"Besides being a vanity project for MEPs, the thing is also is a way for the EU institutions to brainwash school children, who are invited to come in groups to join a 'multi-modal role play game' in which they can take on the role of an MEP and go through all the steps need to approve a new European law. Yes, laws come from Europe, not from Westminster anymore, but I'd hardly take a British child on a holiday to Brussels to celebrate that disaster. Take him instead to the House of Commons and let him lay a wreath."
It may be recalled that I posted about the conditioning of young minds here and the fact that our political elite appear to be content in breaking the provisions of our education acts, where political content is raised in our schools, speaks for itself. That they and the representatives of their respective parties in Brussels allow such an exhibition as that in the 'visitor centre' to continue without protest also speaks for itself.

Our political elite are becoming more and more blatant in their use of propaganda too, an art not just containing lies but one that also uses omission of facts. An example of this occured only the other day in the House of Lords. Lord Stoddart asked a question (Lord's Hansard Col: WA254):
"Lord Stoddart: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they could agree to an European Union financial transaction tax without parliamentary approval and a referendum. [HL12084]
Lord Sassoon: Agreement to a directive on a financial transaction tax would require unanimity in the Council of Ministers, giving the UK Government a veto over any such proposal. Therefore such an EU tax cannot be imposed on the UK without the UK's agreement. While the UK Government are not opposed to financial transaction taxes in principle, the Government do oppose a European financial transaction tax. Any EU directive on a financial transaction tax or any other tax could not be implemented in the UK without parliamentary approval of the requisite Finance Bill legislation."
The omission in this instance is that were the financial transaction tax to be introduced by means of unanimity, such a possible directive could be vetoed by the UK government, however it is on the cards that such a directive may not be necessary. As Kay Swinburne, MEP, informed the Conservative Party conference moves are afoot to have this financial transaction tax introduced as a VAT measure, one which would be 'sanctioned' by means of qualified majority voting - and obviously means it could be imposed on the UK without the agreement of the government.


Just what is it about this creeping totalitarianism, one that is being foisted on the people, that remains invisible to them? As I posted previously, whilst the political elite in this country continue their ploy of making us believe that only they are right where matters affecting our country and our lives are concerned, do people no longer think about, or question in their own minds, what is happening to them, what they are being told? When someone lies, someone to whom one looks for guidance - be that a politician or anyone placed in positions of trust - and that lie is discovered, all trust in that person is gone, never to return. In the words of Thomas Paine, Voice of Reason, when a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

Perhaps the biggest joke played upon the people of our country is Members of Parliament referring to each other in the House of Commons as 'Honourable' Given the choice I would rather our country still had honour without the MPs, than MPs without honour. That is why there must be a cleaning of the 'Augean Stables', that is why there must be change to our system of democracy thus ensuring that this country never, ever again has to suffer the decades of political deceit which have been inflicted upon us.

8 comments:

PeterCharles said...

"Just what is it about this creeping totalitarianism, one that is being foisted on the people, that remains invisible to them?"

"There are none so blind as those who will not see and none so deaf as those who will not hear." Or words to that effect, anyway.

People in general have come to the conclusion that politicians and the government exist in a separate reality, nothing they do outside of a general election is going to affect it and even that depends more on random chance than anything else. They know not a single word uttered by a politician can be trusted in any shape or form and thus is valueless. But as long as life goes along reasonably tolerably for the majority they sit back, grumble and hope for the best. We used to rely on the media to hold government to account, as much as was possible, but they have now more or less abandoned the job, mainly because it no longer sells papers. Indeed there is virtually no market for a serious newspaper any more, adult comics filled with trivia and celebrity watching yes, serious and important stuff, no.

What we need is a series of grass-roots organisations, like the US Tea Party to get debate going, but we have so long abandoned any kind of local or political meeting outside of a 'demo' here and there that people simply wouldn't know how to organise a UK Tea Party on the one hand or what to do with it on the other. Some organisation does happen occasionally where there is a particular local concern like a hospital closure or similar but such incidents are rarely reported outside of the local press and the efforts are rarely successful. Only if people can see and taste that they CAN have a real effect will they even start to try.

Apathy rules and will do so until life gets too painful, which won't be very long given the way things are going. Indeed, the way things are progressing I sometimes think 21 - 12 - 2012 may after all turn out to be a very significant date.

Stop Common Purpose said...

Sending Eurogendfor into Greece is particularly disturbing news.

PeterCharles said...

One thing is for sure if Eurogendfor is actually deployed in Greece. The ex-soviet bloc states are not likely to take it very well. There is already enough suspicion among large sections of those communities that they may have swapped the USSR for the EUSSR.

Nor would it go down very well in Portugal or Spain, or the UK come to that. Although don't expect the UK government to show alarm, Cameron and his ilk are high on the list of those that think a little bit of repression is a good thing and acting against the interests of the State (i.e. challenging government) is among the most serious of crimes.

TomTom said...

Read Jonah Goldberg: "Liberal Fascism" and see that we live in a Liberal Fascist State and Mussolini is the role model for our "Third Way" Society.

It is a feminised, all-embracing totalitarian embrace of caring, compassionate CONTROL

Major Loophole said...

Omission, observe the philosophers, is every bit as bad as an act of commission. The law takes a similar view.

But actually its worse because it encompasses concealment and in turn deception and thus wilful breach of trust.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

PC: "Only if people can see and taste that they CAN have a real effect will they even start to try." - a change to the Swiss system?

Lost on the 21/12/2012 - have I missed something?

Otherwise, agreed as usual.

SCP: It is indeed worrying......

TT: Thanks for adding to my reading list........

ML: Agreed also!

PeterCharles said...

Yes, I am a great advocate of any system that curtails government.

21/12/2012 is the day the current Great Cycle of the Mayan calendar ends and the point at which the current world is prophesied to end, interestingly, or perhaps not, also the point at which several other predictions of global doom are supposed to occur.

Of course, prophecy being what is, no one knows if the envisaged doom is in a physical sense, an economic sense, a spiritual sense, a social sense or whatever.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

PC: Thanks for the update! Mayan event of the likes you mention actually happen! We can but hope the prophesied doom is political!