Richard North*, EU Referendum, posts on an article in the Observer, that article referring to one by Jose Manuel Barroso also in the same newspaper, in which he repeats his call for deeper integration within the European Union. He commences his article with a statement that is completely laughable in context:
"Today, on Remembrance Sunday, the United Kingdom commemorates the end of the first world war, which brought four years of intolerable carnage to an end. The second week in November is also the week of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, when freedom prevailed over totalitarian rule." (Emphasis mine)
That last sentence must rank as the most memorable and delusional quotation of all time. Those words will undoubtedly come back to haunt him when, with the disintegration of the European Union, freedom will indeed prevail over totalitarian rule - only this time people will not make the mistake of exchanging one set of despots for another.
Barroso continues, discussing the need for deepening convergence and integration of the European Union which in his view must also involve deeper democracy:
"I have read with some fascination the recent spate of articles that Europe is being run by officials who are taking over from elected politicians. The reality is somewhat different. Bodies like the European commission and European Central Bank have a duty to act in the common interest, especially when the political and economic stability of the EU is endangered. That means setting out a clear course of action and recommending difficult decisions. But it does not change the fact that European governments take the final decisions and that national parliaments and the European parliament guarantee democratic legitimacy."
How this man has the effrontery to deny that in Greece and Italy recently the governments of those two countries were not allowed to make any decision but were in fact dictated to by the EU and reduced to the state of being protectorates; and then to maintain that national parliaments and the European parliament guarantee democratic legitimacy, stretches logic to unimaginable limits.
Not just today, Remembrance Sunday, but every day that I have to look at this man together with his EU colleagues - who are aided and abetted by our own Quisling politician** - my revulsion for them knows no bounds.
* I would wish to publicly add my voice to those who have welcomed back RN to the blogosphere.
** From Inspector Gadget comes a picture with a most telling comment (and I trust he will forgive me nicking something from the police!)
One thing in common. Not a campaign service medal or bravery award between them.
