After elections to the European Parliament has come the retirement of some in the Top Jobs, and therefore the process of replacing them. This includes the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs (effectively the EU’s Foreign Minister), and head of the European Central Bank. Nominations have been agreed for all four roles.
And as usual, those in the UK viscerally opposed to the EU and all it stands for have decided that, whatever the process for selecting, appointing and confirming candidates for those roles, it must be Undemocratic. This may be because those criticising do not understand how the EU works; it may also be because they are plain flat wrong.
Failed EU 101: clueless Monty ...
So let’s look at the panoply of rank ignorance that is the Pundit Establishment, starting with one of its youngest members, Darren Crimes, oops, sorry, Grimes. “It’s so important that we get away from this madness. Suddenly, the EU army isn’t Nick Clegg’s ‘fantasy’ and now a real possibility thanks to our newest set of unelected EU overlords!” he frothed.
... gobby Grimes ...
Doing little better was self-promoting TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Dooda, trilling “There are pros and cons to all voting systems, including First Past The Post. But it’s so laughable to see Remoaners like Dawkins criticising our voting system as ‘highly undemocratic’ while EU leaders do backdoor deals to stitch up who runs the *unelected* European Commission!” And she gets invited on by broadcasters like the BBC. Yes, well.
... and Ms Hartley Dooda
What say the serially clueless Tim Montgomerie? “Forgetting we are a parliamentary democracy Remainers endlessly complain at the way the Tory party is choosing its leader… I’m not noticing many complain at the way leaders of the EU bureaucracy are(n’t) being chosen behind closed doors in Brussels”. He doesn’t understand, either.
So let’s put these titans of tosspottery straight. The Head of the European Commission is one of 28 Commissioners appointed and confirmed by the Governments of each EU member state. Those Governments are democratically elected. Moreover, the appointment of the Head of the Commission has to be confirmed by the European Parliament - whose 751 MEPs are democratically elected. And the President of the European Council?
This body consists of heads of state, or heads of Government, of all 28 EU member states. The President of the European Council must also be confirmed by the European Parliament. As must the High Representative for Foreign Affairs. As must the head of the ECB. When did the Governor of the Bank of England last get elected?
The UK’s Foreign Minister gets decided at the whim of whoever is Prime Minister. And as for Monty’s characteristically clueless snipe at “leaders of the EU bureaucracy”, well, when was the last time any of the Civil Service got elected? Yet when the EU ensures all those senior positions are subject to confirmation by a democratically elected Parliament, which has the power to remove the Commission, and has done in the past, it is “undemocratic”.
Such wrong-headedness only confirms the wilful ignorance of so many in the Pundit Establishment. If only pundits had to show they knew what they were talking about in order to get to do punditry, eh? But that’s an exam that most of them would fail.
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The attitude of Blighty's right-wing Europhobes always reminds me of a quotation from historian AJP Taylor's How Wars Begin (published 1979).
ReplyDelete"The British are entitled always to mistrust other people but others are not entitled to mistrust the British. That is why England is known or was known abroad as 'Perfide Albion', because the British have two standards, one for themselves and one for other people."
You need to remember, Tim, that among English men and women of a certain type, knowledge and expertise are both regarded with great suspicion.
ReplyDeleteIll-informed and stubborn certainty,on the other hand, is the sort of quality which Made Britain Great
The companies that employ Grimes, Montgomerie and Doo-Dah would be better off employing someone who has a firmer grasp on things e.g. Barry Shitpeas.
ReplyDeleteBit rich, isn't it, coming from a nation with an unelected second chamber and head of state, plus a ruritanian monarchy - and no written constitution.
ReplyDeleteDon't let it bother you though. Coronation Street and East Enders are on later.
And there's always football and cricket. The first, Soma for the masses. The second, a five day rain-making ritual laced with Mogadon.
Welcome to the United States of Europe & it's army. The Fourth Reich has parked the Panzers on Brussels lawn. With a French fiddler operating the Euro presses the way is open for those Federalists that know what is good for us to sideline democracy further.
ReplyDeleteTo claim the new overlords are elected is a nonsense. You claim to be a socialist, what pray is socialist about the EU and the way it is run.
We are leaving none too soon and I suggest those that don't like it exercise their right to free movement and do one. Bischofsheim or Mâcon would welcome you, but you would need to moderate your language.
@5
ReplyDeleteI make no such claim. But my point about the EU and democracy stands.
The righteous hypocrisy of Britons lecturing the EU on the subject is a thing to behold (see also comment @4 on that subject).
Have a think about it.
Here is hypocrisy for you!
ReplyDeleteEuropean Commission President will be Ursula von der Leyen, who has made it very clear that the EU will have its own army to which member states’ own defence departments must defer (that’s right, an unelected German politician will have sovereignty over the British MoD). One can at least now hope that this appointment signals that the EU and its apologists here in Britain will finally – at long last – stop lying to us about its plans for the EU to continue to tighten its grip on all ‘member states’.
The European Central Bank has been put in the safe hands of Christine Lagaard, who despite being found guilty of criminal negligence with €400,000,000 of taxpayers’ money was let off without a sentence or even a fine and with the additional favour from the courts that her conviction would ‘not constitute a criminal record.’ And as seems to be the case with this present cabal of untouchables, she kept her job as head of the IMF into the bargain.
European Council President is to be the scandal-hit Charles Michel, not that scandals ever seem to affect these people’s promotion prospects. Martel, who was voted out of the Belgian presidency in a no-confidence vote only last December will simply move down the road to a new suite of offices at the EU. Unbelievable but true.
Spaniard Josep Borrell will be the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, replacing the mission-creep obsessive Federica Mogherini. Who’s he? Well he was forced to resign in 2014 from the European University after a financial scandal and then as recently as 2018 was found guilty of criminal insider trading on the Spanish stockmarket, whilst he was Spain’s Foreign Minister. So just the kind of person the EU likes to put in charge of things, welcome back to Brussels Señor Borrell. High Representative? Almost makes you wish Gilbert and Sullivan were still writing their satirical comic operas.
Viva la revolución!
@5
ReplyDeleteBischofsheim and Mâcon - Are they places of interest, like Salisbury, to СВР РФ agents?
@7
ReplyDeleteYou lost the plot when you said Ms V d Leyen had "made it clear" that there would be an EU army.
As any rule kno, she or anyone else in the role for which she has been nominated is in no position to impose anything on the member states of the EU.
Also, copying and pasting from the Guido Fawkes blog is so passé. Try thinking for yourself.
NB that thinking can take place elsewhere. HINT.