Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Hamish Macdonell: Meet your new MEPs – whether you vote or not

Premium Article !

Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button.

Options

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site.

Subscribe

Registered Article !

To read this article in full you must be registered with the site.

Sign In
Register
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 12 May 2009
'WHY don't we hear more about it? Why isn't there any coverage?" he asked. The questioner was at a European hustings event last Friday that kicked off the European election campaign in Scotland. There were 20 or 30 people there to hear three MEPs and one would-be MEP appeal for their votes.
The questioner was right; there has been little coverage of the European elections in Britain and that position is unlikely to change – for one simple reason: no-one really cares about the European elections at all and the media, in this case at leas...



The full article contains 1049 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 11 May 2009 8:31 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Hamish Macdonell
 
1

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 12/05/2009 10:46:10
An even better start would be to abolish the elected EU assembly, commonly but erroneously entitled "European Parliament", and replace it with a delegated assembly similar to those of the 47-member Council of Europe and the 56-member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which are composed of members of national parliaments. The so-called "European" election is just window-dressing that has nothing to do with democracy.

Nothing that MEPs (so-called) do justifies the extreme complexity and hideous expense of the setup in which they operate. It is a juggernaut that has run out of control. The EU, a single organisation amongst others that started out as the economic arm of the integration movement, is now moving into other areas like foreign policy and defence as well as legislating on other matters that are none of its business. It has torn up the democratic advances of centuries of struggle, a process that will be advanced still further if the ominous Lisbon proposals are ever put into effect, especially Article 48. It is no wonder that the EU is a single heap of corruption up to the highest levels.

I am totally sympathetic to the aspirations of the European integration movement as a whole, which comprises a good deal more than the EU. I have seen it from a Central European viewpoint, I am intimately acquainted with its origins, I appreciate its necessity, and I acknowledge what it has achieved to date. It is because I happen to know what I am talking about that I say Yes to Europe, and No to the the EU, at least in its present form.

The European Union has gone off the rails somewhere along the line. It is still trying to realise the European idea of the inter-war period, when we are now living in a vastly different world with a genuinely global level of government that did not exist then. Development of the European "political architecture" is far from complete, and when that stage has been reached I doubt whether the EU as it presen
2

Dr. James Wilkie,

Vienna 12/05/2009 10:47:25
Development of the European "political architecture" is far from complete, and when that stage has been reached I doubt whether the EU as it presently exists will have a place.

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.