Euro Referendum - not Worthy of Discussion?

If I were stopped by a British policeman and asked for ID I would tell him to piss off.

Bob

Matthew,

I voted on the constitition, most people voted to get Chirac to change policies.

The saddest thing is that there was much for France to gain by voting 'oui', greater weight in EC voting, for one thing, and the 'opt out' clause for another.

Interestingly, the no vote was very high among farmers! Paris and the Western suburbs voted yes. As did the Cote d'azur and those close to the Swiss border, and Alsace!

Anyway, what we have now is a lame duck president, with a govenment that's going to shoot itself in the feet at every opportunity. Chirac is preparing the way for Sarkozy to become president, something I personally don't relish, but Sarko is seen by many French as the saviour of France, among rich and poor!

For the anecdote, when Sarkozy stepped down as interior Minister and restood as deputy in Neuilly , which he won handsomely, the Front National vote was reduced by half. And only 6 months ago Chirac said that Sarkozy couldn't be the chief of the paty and a govenment minister, he's just been renamed to the interior ministry.

Oh, and one last thing.

Steven, the French government considers it's citizens as morons! If Chirac had had any idea that the refrendum would go against him there wouldn't have been one. He's only intrested in one thing and that's being elected!

He sounds a bit like Blair then.

The chances are Blair would only call a referendum if he was certain the electorate was going to vote the same way as he.

In the past I've always got the impression that in France there was a tradition of the master/servant roles being the reverese of in the UK.

I guess like Blair, Chirac is dismantling honourable traditions - the role of the civil service being an example that springs to mind...

quote:

If I were stopped by a British policeman and asked for ID I would tell him to piss off.

Do that in France and you'll be arrested, but then you are only likely to be asked if you've done something naughty and/or you have dark skin and curly hair.

A few more years of Chairman Blair and it will be the same here. You'll be arriving at the station running a couple of minutes late. The imminent departure of your train will be announced over the tannoy. A copper will appear from nowhere to ask you for ID. You'll tell him to piss off, and one thing is for sure, you won't make that train...

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Toy:
He sounds a bit like Blair then.


I guess like Blair, Chirac is dismantling honourable traditions - the role of the civil service being an example that springs to mind...

Blair has a plan, You might not like it, but he's got one. And I think that one could argue that he's done good things whilst in office. Chirac is a weather cock, points which way the wind blows, and no plan, except to avoid going to prison.

Chirac is only popular with arab cause sympathisers in North African countries.

Go Dutch Instead

Steve
I was answering the question what would I do if a British policeman asked me for ID.
Of course in France if I were stopped and asked the same question I would offer him the contents of my wallet and my wife.

Bob

quote:

Blair has a plan, You might not like it, but he's got one.

That's what scares me the most. Like the Chinese he appears to be playing the long game.

I dread to imagine Britain after another 10 years of the strategical deployer of "honourable" deception.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Toy:

I dread to imagine Britain after another 10 years of the strategical deployer of "honourable" deception.

I often wonder just how much politician can influence the run of the world, I believe more than ever that everything is run by soulless money machines.

quote:

Go Dutch Instead

Ah-Berlin.
At least there can be no discussions about turn out. I was amused that it took the Dutch government about 1 hour after the polls closed to realise they had better "get with the program" and agree they should listen to the will of the people.
Of course again it was an emotional vote. the Dutch feel quite strongly they are being raped by the EU overlords. One of the first things they would like to see depart is the UK's nice yearly "rebate" which they feel is paid for in part by their high taxation.
It does'nt help either that it was recently revealed that the powers that be seriously undervalued the Dutch guilder when they established it's value against the Euro and ever since the Dutch having being paying too much for everything.

I wonder how Tony is looking forward to his sorjourn as EU President

Perhaps there aren't any times when taking a cavalier attitude to a serious matter is desirable but I've managed to convince myself that this case is an exception:

My default position was to vote "No", on the grounds that:
1) If it is what the "Yes" lobby says it is, it shouldn't be put to the people to vote on in the first place.
2) If is what the "No" lobby says it is, then one should vote "No".

Slightly more seriously, I don't think I'm mentally up to reading 200 pages of this stuff and whatever else I might need to understand its significance, so I'd be reduced to a "The man from the Treasury* - he say yes!" type of decision, which I don't like at all...

Even more seriously, maybe one doesn't have to read 200 pages worth to come to a reasonably well informed conclusion but I was so confident it wasn't going to come to a vote, here, that I've ignored the issue completely...

*Don't bother asking why I said this...

And I wonder how many of those MEP's have read the proposed constitution. And I wonder how many people in general have read the proposed constitution.

And before anyone asks I haven't and I don't intend to.

Ken Clarke (A switched on man in many ways) commented in an interview earlier, that as Schrödre, Chriac, and Biar are all basically on their way out, it's not so very relevant what they say, and I tend to agree with him actually, innit.

Fritz Von Our Man In Berlin with the hiccups and wrongly pressed leder-hosen