Dan Hannan reports that the Irish are waking up to the fact that they new EU constitution treaty may not be that great for them. Unlike the UK their government had the guts to let the people decide. Needless to say the establishment is pro and anyone with a brain/sane is against. It will be interesting to see how the EU reacts when the Irish people give em’ a two fingered salute.

The European Union is currently patting itself on the back for finally getting all the member states to agree to a new constitution, rather treaty, to replace all 250+ pages of the constitution that was unceremoniously shot down by the voters in two important member states.

There are all kinds of shots of foreign ministers, EU officials, and member states leaders clinking champagne and hugging each other because they have thrashed out a deal that keeps everyone happy. Of course, its more likely that everyone is unhappy about it in an equal amount but we will stick with their spin.

The trouble however is that while they prattle on and quaff champagne paid for by the taxpayers of the European Union (And that is mostly paid for by the UK, Germany and France who are the only net contributors.) there is a growing crisis happening on their extreme south-east border. The EU seem to be missing in action when it comes to the possible all out war that an aspirant EU-state Turkey, who is desperate to join, is about to cause in Kurdish areas of Asia Minor.

Where are the screams of protest and the desperate calls for negotiation coming from the EU ministers? Where is their new foreign minister in this whole thing? After all the EU is at great pains to claim that Turkey is a European state. There is much anger in Brussels over Germany and Frances continued opposition to Turkey joining the EU; from as far away as the UK.

Many of us suspect that this will be another case where the EU proves to be a toothless and weak tiger as it did with the Balkans. They talk a lot but are not able to handle something that is on their own doorstep and will have a great impact on the EU. After all, where do you think Kurdish refugees will head? They are hated almost as much as Jews are in the Muslim world for a variety of reasons. Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq have been trying to wipe them off the face of the earth for as long as they have been trying to drive Jews out of the region.

The EU needs to make it clear to Turkey that if they invade Kurdish areas of Iraq that they will never be let into the EU. Their membership application will be torn up and they will be permanently banned from the club they are so desperate to join.

The EU should for once try to do something useful, bury its anti-American hatred, and try to ensure that Asia Minor is not turned into a far larger war zone than it already is at the moment. It would be a great shame to see the most peaceful area of Iraq returned to a state of war.

Its the EUs time to put up or shut up.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

Published over at As Maine Goes for now. Will post it here after a few days. I have been pondering my latest column and was spoiled for choice.

Iain Martin has done a great service to his readers and read the vomit-inducing codswhallop contained in Peter “Mandy” Mandleson’s latest speech in Brussels. You can read the thing if you want on the European Commission website. Here is an excerpt which rather sums things up.

It’s not a constitution – there is no anthem, no ancient Greek mottos. And although the EU’s pooling of some powers to give Europe greater weight in the world will always be objected to by British diehards, we need to remember that for the little bit of influence over our own actions that we grant others, we get an equivalent measure of influence over theirs.”

You know when someone like Mandy gives a speech like this one really needs to worry. The more the EU tell everyone that the treaty is not a constitution the more people think they are hiding what it really is.

One does have to wonder if Brown will be able to resist the siren call to give a referendum now being heard from behind him on the benches.

Not exactly subtle but it does make the point quite well doesn’t it? Its not like the EU has not been doing that to the British for the past 30 years.

This t-shirt was found at the GBBF which my wife thoroughly enjoyed in company of John our bandmate and her husband.

It will not shock anyone to hear that the non-beer fan stuck to the Belgian fruit beers all afternoon.

We got quite a haul from the tombola our group (John, Kim & I): three t-shirts, 3 books, 1 mug, a pile of beer mats, 3 beer towels and wait for it an unbrella. One of the most amusing things was the fact that I got a beer drinkers guide to Gorleston…which is my manorial manor.

Some of the British bloggers have banded together to create Referendum List so as to fact check who supports a referendum on the latest EU treaty. They will be quizzing elected representatives to see who believes its right to give the British public a say in their fate in the EU.

Its an exercise of monumental importance and their efforts are to be applauded. If the federasts are so convinced that the UK is so pro-EU its about time they put that theory to the test.

This bit from CMU caught my eye. It is wonderful to see the Liberal Democrats have their finger on the pulse of what is important to the average British citizen.

Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross has called for the voting system
for the Eurovision Song Contest to be changed because, he says, countries
vote for their neighbours instead of the best song, something which, he
maintains, is “harmful to the relationship between the peoples of Europe”.
Don’t know whether his constituents have called for this in anyway, but,
nevertheless, he’s spent some of his no doubt valuable time tabling an EDM
(early day motion) which has been backed by fellow Lib Dem Colin Breed as
well as two Labour MPs, John Robertson and David Drew.

Actually, not everyone agrees with Younger-Ross that Eurovision is 100%
biased. One Derek Gatherer (really, that’s his name) has spent some of his
own no doubt valuable time studying Eurovision voting patterns and he says
voters aren’t quite as biased as many say, although he admits geography can
be a factor. He says: “Less than a third of the total votes for the winning
entry were ones which seemed to have been influenced by block voting. It
does make it rather harder for us to win, but it’s not to suggest that all
the votes are necessarily given out according to these local alliances”.

That said, Younger-Ross isn’t alone in expressing concern about Eurovision
voting rules this week. Elsewhere, the Malta contingent have implied that
it’s all a bit of a fix, and that the phone voting system isn’t being
properly monitored in eastern Europe, whilst Germany’s national tabloid Bild
is asking why the Western entrants should be paying shitloads of cash to
fund a contest they’re seemingly no longer in with a chance of winning. I’ve
been thinking similar thoughts myself, though Bild perhaps aren’t taking
into account the cash that it also generates for those countries. However,
Bild do have something that I don’t, and that’s a quote from this year’s
German entrant Nicole, who says: “It is obvious that Eastern European
countries engage in dirty trade with points every year. Germany should
withdraw from the competition”.

What a palaver, eh? Last word to Paul Gambaccini, who told Radio 4 that he
thinks it’s all political: “Britain’s votes plummeted with the invasion of
Iraq and have stayed in the basement with the occupation. There has always
been a political dimension to Eurovision, the love-fest between Greece and
Cyprus has been noted for a long time. Now with the public voting instead of
the panel voting it is really extensive”.

Lets make sure that a band like Lordi, who are actually good and talented, never win again. The Eurovision drones are still upset about it. They don’t seem to realise that Eastern Europe think Europop is a load of ole’ rubbish.

This time lecturing Americans about exterminating people or not. You see now that Germans have gotten over that spot of guilt from their genocidal behaviour in WWII they think they can lecture Americans about what they did to the American Indian tribes. Wonder if he realises that Sioux is actually a word used by other tribes to describe the tribe. Bet he has no idea what it means either. Oh yes and the guy is from the so-called “Conservatives” in Germany the CDU.

More like specs of red and black from the violence and fire bombings happening in certain areas like Limerick. It seems that all that European money (ie British & German) that has been pouring into Ireland has not exactly prevented a rise of thuggery and violent crime. The thugs now seem to be well armed and completely unfeeling. The fact that two small children were caught in the fray makes it even worse.

Don’t let people like Sen Snowe of Maine see this but the Germans have decided a great way to produce jobs is to tax the internet. Watch for a bunch of hi-tech firms to leave Germany and head West What was it about the shift to free-market right by Germany again? And here I thought they first country in Europe to be that daft would be the French or the Belgians.

Douglas Carswell MP & Christopher Booker speak to the Bruges Group on where Britian’s future lies. Interesting speech well worth listening to. Carswell is a rising star and one to watch.

Dan Hannan has written an excellent piece on the current attempt to sell the EU to Britons via capturing the imagination of their children. It does strike me how often the EU uses the same tactics as Hitler & Co when attempting to get the idea of a country called Europe across to the citizens of the continent. What next Euro-youth?

For older children, there is Captain Euro, a square-jawed superhero whose mission “to uphold the EU’s values” brings him into conflict with the villainous – and for some reason Jewish-looking – Dr D. Vider, who plots “to divide Europe and create his own empire”.

Read the whole piece. It does make for some rather cringe-worthy reading. Of course, anyone used to dealing with the EU or its institutions is used to cringing at the crassness and brashness of those wish to further the EU dream.

Airbus style…and like most this European its going pear-shaped quick. And I am so sorry to hear Airbus is having trouble…

The ASI saw the launch of EUtopia. This is a pamphlet on how to reform the EU and it must be done. While the pamphlet is well written and spot on; one does have to wonder if another attempt by the British to return the EU to its roots will have any more success than the last attempts. The authors do have a good point in saying that Blair & Co have not been particularily trying to get any reform from the organisation. Their surrender of the British rebate for little or no in return was not a good sign of intentions. The pamphlet is available for free download at the ASI site and is well worth the read.

On the other hand Baron Bodissey wants to see the EU cease to be as soon as possible.

They are marching in London to protest that they won’t be getting a 23% pay rise. They are holding up students futures for a rise way above inflation. And why do people think that university types live in their own little world? If I were a final year student who future was being held to ransom by the lefty nitwits I would sue the hell out of their union. Needless to say that bastion of reasonableness the NUS is supporting not the students but the teachers.

Anyone surprised?

You thought it was just a crappy music contest…well now its an international incident! I wonder who the Turks are supporting?

In one easy step. Not that footie fans in the UK are that enamored with the EU anyway.

Amazingly the questions are not biased to the latest frothing enviro-weenie PR. You can actually answer things in a sceptical way. Go check it out and take the poll. If link does not work its the hot topic on the Sky News page.

Well this is hardly surprisingly considering how hard they are sucking up to Muslims. Its seems at least one of them has adopted methods of MCB when it comes to speaking to Jews. Iain Dale reports on the leader of the Lib-Dems in the European Parliament who was so bad he has been forced to resign. He should, if the reported remarks are accurate, be forced to resign his seat as well.

When remonstrated on his criticism of Israel by a Jewish letter writer he responded thusly:

“Sounds like racism to me. I hope you enjoying wallowing in your own filth.’‘

Considering this is coming from a Lib-Dem its a bad choice of words methinks. Last I checked it was Lib-Dems who enjoy such things.

...The band set to represent the country at Eurovision, Lordi, are a scary metal band with scary masks wielding scary chainsaws, and their track, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ is considered to be a fairly radical departure from usual Euro-fare. Lordi were selected to represent Finland via a TV vote, and garnered a fairly conclusive 42% of the vote, so the band are clearly popular with at least some of their fellow countrymen.

Father Mitro Repo, a Helsinki clergyman says the band’s use of the name ‘Lordi’, which means ‘the lord’, is sacrilege. “I think it’s a stupid joke of Finland,” he says “Lord have mercy on us Finnish people now.”

Let’s see they are winding up fundies and Eur0bollocksvision purists; which can never seen to be bad. Now we heavy rockers have more reasons to make sure we all watch Eurovision this year. Found via the invaluable CMU.

The cops in France need real bullets instead of paint. Oh, not really news but…French youths are rioting.

France. Being French they are worried about Apple’s dominance of the MP3 market; no doubt trouncing any French efforts in the area; so rather than get competitive the French are sueing Apple.

What Mr Blair really meant was that he could not stand the opprobrium of his fellow premiers. Faced, as EM Forster might have put it, with a choice between betraying his friends or his country, he opted bravely for the latter.

From a leader in the Sunday Telegraph.

Bruce Dickinson lead singer of Iron Maiden (and Icelandic Airline Pilot, author, Olympic standard fencer and documentary host) opined the following about the EU in the latest issue of Kerrang!:

It’s rotten to the core, riddled with corruption.

There have obviously been a few obits, some of them rather brutal, about the former Conservative Prime Minister and party leader, Edward Heath. Like many current Tories I take a fairly jaundiced view of the man’s political philosophy, particularly his enthusiastic embrace of EU federalism and consequent dismissal of our most important and reliable ally, the United States. To be fair, though, Heath was an unlucky Prime Minister. It is impossible now for many young people to imagine what a terrible period the early 1970s were: constant industrial mayhem, the IRA on the rampage, the OPEC quadrupling of the oil price, the sense of national decay and decline. Heath never really stuck to his guns in trying to resist the growth of the State and at heart, he was the sort of Tory for whom radicalism meant massive administrative effort rather than political change.

Unlike a lot of modern politicians, though, he had the hinterland of a superb musical talent – how many of today’s motley bunch could play the piano as well? – and was an excellent yachtsman, winning the Sydney-to-Hobart race, one of the toughest.

His grumpy treatment of Maggie during her period as Party leader, though, means that for me, he will always be remembered as the “Incredible Sulk”. A shame, this rather lonely man struck me as a rather tragic figure, and not an entirely dislikeable one.

Nice take on globalisation, the anti-capitalist snobbery of parts of the French establishment, and upstart wineries in Latin America and California’s Napa Valley, here. I did not realise that the Robert Mondavi winery was so hated by the French. I visited the Napa region with my fiance last September – during the runup to grape-picking time – and really loved it. We went to the Mondavi winery and brought a couple of bottles back, and I have nervously kept watch on ‘em whenever Andrew comes around the flat!

More than a decade ago, New World wines started to beat the best French red stuff in blind tastings. It is fair to say that the land of Montaigne and Charles de Gaulle has yet to recover.

Well, from the evidence we are getting from David; they hate us.

Oh yes ,and Damian has details on how Hitler kept his people happy. Or to put it another way.

As such, most Germans saw Nazism as a “warm-hearted” protector, says Aly, author of the new book “Hitler’s People’s State: Robbery, Racial War and National Socialism” and currently a guest lecturer at the University of Frankfurt. They were only too happy to overlook the Third Reich’s unsavory, murderous side.

I had sex with dogs for their sake, Belgian says:

BRUSSELS, March 18 (Reuters) – A Belgian man on trial for having sex with dogs claims he did it out of compassion for man’s best friend, a Belgian paper said on Friday. Daily Gazet Van Antwerpen said the 36-year old in the eastern Belgian town of Genk told the court he had sex with dogs “out of love for animals”, since a lot of them can’t have sex, especially those locked up in refuges. The man, only identified by his initials, could face six months in jail if convicted. He had worked in an animal refuge before and had also posted thousands of pictures on the Internet of himself having sex with dogs, the paper said.

Well at least its better than having sex with children, at least. Gives new meaning to the term puppy love.

Anyone seen Kilroy-Silk lately? Amateur video from a shopping centre somewhere in the East Midlands?
Credits to EUrophobe for finding this.