Category: Europe

Blair Unfit to Hold EU Position

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Honestly, I would not trust him as my pastry chef, but the statements by former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and the former prime minister Edouard Balladur thatTony Blair is unfit to be the next EU president is rather refreshing.

One of their arguments is technical, they feel that the First EU president (the treaty is going the rounds) should go to a country that is a part of the Euro zone, but the other is that, “Both men [d’Estang and Balladur] say Europe’s first president must come from a country which is fully committed to all EU policies, including the euro. Mr Balladur – breaking publicly with President Sarkozy – also says Mr Blair is too close to the United States to be chosen as a “fitting spokesman for Europe”. Their views are echoed, off the record, by senior officials in Belgium and Italy.”

In other words, for this high profile, if largely ceremonial position, he’s simply Bush’s Poodle, and nothing can fix that.

Poland Worries About Being Left Holding the Bag on the “Missile Shield”

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I think that the new government in Poland realizes that George W. Bush does not stand up for his allies, and his successor will be unlikely to stand up for George W. Bush’s allies, so they are special military treaty ahead of negotiations on a US missile shield in Europe, such as the ones with Turkey and Italy.

For Poland, “The worst scenario is a situation in which Poland would agree to the shield, will incur the political costs and then the base is not built, because of a change of government in the United States”.

They are afraid of being left holding the bag.

With a year left in the reign of the Avignon President, it’s a sensible concern.

Tata Motors to Purchase Jaguar

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So it appears that Ford will sell Jaguar and Rover to Tata Motors in India.

When I heard about this, I flashed back to the otherwise forgettable movie, Crazy People, in which Dudley Moore plays an advertising man who flips out, and starts writing completely honest ads.

He does one for Jaguar, he does one that goes:

Jaguar… For guys who want handjobs from beautiful women they hardly know (with accompanying “Yes! I want a hand job!” tear off flyers).

Somehow the juxtaposition of Jaguar and Tata leads me to places I should not be going.

Thankfully, a friend helped (thanks Asta), and I can now conclusively say that their next car will be called the…..

Wait for it…..

Wait for it….

The Bodacious Tata!

Even New Labour Sick of Anti-Terror Laws

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It looks like Gordon Brown is looking at a revolt among his own party regarding his proposal to extend the period of detention without charge in terrorism cases from 28 days to 42 days.

It probably does not help that Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Head of the CPS and Director of Public Prosecutions, in addition to, “the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith and the former Lord chancellor Lord Falconer.”

What I don’t get about the current politics in Britain is how the other parties are not exploiting the current situation.

Brown is floundering, Blair was remarkably unpopular, and that was before his conversion to Catholicism, which from what I’ve read, both historical and current stories, is a very big negative to the British public.

Why the Tories or Lib-Dems are unable to pick up significant seats in these circumstances is completely beyond me.

Russian Head of Nuclear Forces Says Retargeting Europe Under Consideration

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Remember when I mentioned that Obama’s Senate subcommittee never met? It was the Foreign Relations’ Subcommittee on Europe.

It might look at things like, I don’t know, the fact that the Russians are threatening to retarget Europe over the US Missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of strategic missile forces says that Russia might just do this if the installation is seen to, “undermine the Russian nuclear deterrent capability”.

Just because it doesn’t get a whole bunch of press doesn’t mean that it isn’t important work. John Kerry, in a similar position, was instrumental in breaking open the criminal terrorist money laundering operation known as BCCI.

France Finally Gets Foreign Sale of Rafale: 14 to Libya

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The deal appears to be done, though there are still “i”s to be dotted and “t”s to be crossed.

This is very good news for both the French air forces, who were looking for foreign sales to drop unit costs, and Dassault, who have been pulling their hair out over the flop that the aircraft has made in the world market.

14 is not a lot, but it makes the aircraft a lot more attractive to a second potential purchaser, as being the only export purchaser tends to create worries about support.

Ward Connerly’s America: It’s France

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They are having riots once again in France. This is a product of a number of things, but one of them is racism, and the unenforceable nature of anti-discrimination laws in France.

France has a policy that no official records are kept regarding racial or ethnic origin by the government. The idea is that everyone is French, not hyphenated French.

Ward Connerly, a Californian Uncle Tom who has become wealthy by being an uncle Tom, and from being the front man for faux minority contracting*, has been pushing the removal or racial and ethnic status from California state records for years.

You see the natural consequences of such actions in France: a permanent underclass living in slums who are destined never to be hired by bigots, because these bigots will never be caught.

*Cognitive dissonance: Required for the mental illness known as “Republicanism”.

Brkk: Bush Misses His Poodle

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The Bush Administration is unhappy because Gordon Brown does not ask, “How High”, when told to jump. The comments among people who don’t get it are amusing:

The concerns were revealed as Mr Sarkozy made his high-profile trip to Washington, sparking anxiety that France is usurping influence once enjoyed by Britain. This weekend President George W Bush is host to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at his ranch in Texas, during which Iran will be a key talking point.

Nile Gardner, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher and an expert on transatlantic relations at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said: “Britain is clearly losing influence in Washington after Tony Blair. Brown is the invisible man in terms of his profile here.

“It should be of concern in London that France is muscling in on traditional British territory.”

Britain has not had any influence on the US since Bush has started squatting at 1600. They have simply gotten photo-ops for its leaders saying what they were told.

U.K. Home Prices Decline for First Time in 2 Years

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This subprime mortgage default and derivative thing is not just effecting the united states. They have already had what amounted to a bank failure, Northern Rock Plc, and the Bank of England raised its rate to 5.75% in July so the era of easy money in British real estate is over.

Seeing as how a lot of Brits have been bidding up properties in places like Spain for vacation homes, this contagion will spread.

The only place possibly innoculated against this is Japan, since they just finished a 15 year long real estate crash.

Swiss Right Wing Party Scores Major Electoral Victory

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The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won 29% of the vote and 62 of the 200 seats in the National Council, so they will still need to govern in a coalition with the other major parties.

Their success appears largely to be driven by anti-immigrant animus.

I would like to think that most of the voters in Europe are neither bigots or nativist by inclination, but given the political consensus outside of the bigoted and nativist parties, their only choice is to vote for people like the SVP.

The consensus among European intelligencia is that immigration is nearly a human right, while most of the populous sees immigration as serving the national, and to some degree their parochial, interests.

Every society goes through periods of more and less restrictive policies on immigration, and the fact that there is not a more progressive alternative to people like le Pen and the SVP is why they achieve economic success.

More Belgian Breakup Issues

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Basically, this is about nationalist and ethnic tensions between the Flemish (Dutch speaking) and Wallooon (Francophone) seem to be increasing, and currently the winners of the most recent elections on June 10 have been unable to form a government.

It will be interesting to see how the EU will handle this if these disputes in Belgium end up with a dissolution of the nation, particularly with regards to Brussels, which is nominally multi-ethnic and bi-lingual, but is more of a French speaking island in Dutch speaking Flanders.

As an aside, this sort of increased ethnic division and governance problems are a direct result of proportional representation, which encourages people to self identify along narrow sectarian lines.

Left tempers Sarkozy’s poll win – CNN.com

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We’ve just found out what his mandate was. It was that he not be his opponent.

Left tempers Sarkozy’s poll win – CNN.com

PARIS, France (Reuters) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy won a solid parliamentary majority for political and economic reforms on Monday but voters soured the right’s celebrations by not giving a forecast landslide and rejecting a top minister.

Final official results gave 52-year-old Sarkozy a power base of 345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, well below the crushing 470-seat majority predicted in some pre-poll estimates. Votes appeared to have been lost over a sales tax rise.

Despite the setbacks, Sarkozy has the legislative muscle to press ahead with reforms designed to make France’s economy more competitive by loosing rigid labor laws, trimming fat from the public service, cutting taxes and restoring full employment.

He has vowed to shake up the euro zone’s second-largest economy and boost annual growth. The economy grew 2.1 percent in 2006 against an average 2.7 percent in the euro zone. Unemployment is estimated to be at least 8.3 percent.

It should be noted that the EU nations have more accurate reporting of both GDP and unemployment, so this is rather close to US numbers.

Sarkozy, who had been set to complete his government line-up by naming some junior ministers, faced an unexpected reshuffle after his government number two Alain Juppe lost in his Bordeaux stamping ground and promptly announced he would quit.

Sunday’s elections left Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its allies with fewer than the 359 seats they had enjoyed in the outgoing legislature, while the Socialists and their allies increased their haul to 207 from 149.

The French voters just told Sarkosy, “Not so fast”. The fact that one of his junior ministers lost is interesting too, though I’m not versed in French politics.