Shut up, they explained. The EU Parliament shows its true Supreme Soviet colors. I hope that this is the beginning of the end of this undemocratic institution.
[Update a few minutes later]
The EU’s future lies, ominously, with Spain.
[Update mid morning]
Erin go bust: the Euro did it. Thoughts from Daniel Hannan on why Ireland has to leave the currency.
How is it undemocratic? And why do you want to see the end of it? Do you also want to see the end of the US House of Representatives?
That is incredible. The speech is free but we control the microphones. Move along. Nothing to see.
Do you think a US senator or representative would get away with calling an opponent a fascist, using an incredibly loaded propaganda line? Imagine a northern politician berating a soutern politician in terms that refer to the American Civil War. There are lots of reasons to be dissatisfied with the EP or EU level politics, but this isn’t one of them.
What is democratic about it? Comparing it to the House of Representatives is comparing an apple to an egg.
How so? It is directly elected, much like the US House of Representatives.
MPM, Everything you asked has occurred in Congress at one time or another and yes, they got away with it unless their constituents voted them out. Outside of criminal activity, they are the only ones who should be able to expell someone. If you don’t understand this, you don’t understand democracy.
Bill, he’s not losing his seat. He’s being sent from the chamber to cool off. Doesn’t that sort of thing occur in the US? Are you allowed to call your opponent a liar, or a traitor, or a scumbag without being censured?
@MPM:
If you’re FROM Germany, then, yes, you can do all of those things without being censured. Double standards, by their very nature, are less-than-wholly- (read: un-) democratic.
That criticism is fair enough. The German too (in that other incident) should have been given an opportunity to withdraw his remarks and sent from the chamber if he refused.
There is nothing especially meritorious about democracy. A democracy functioning without well circumscribed boundaries for state action can and will become the worst of tyrannies. Witness the tyranny our own beloved republic has degraded to within the last seventy years.
Thoughts from Daniel Hannan on why Ireland has to leave the currency.
Hannan is just engaging in his customary Eurobashing. He speaks of the Eurozone monetary policy being wrong for Ireland, but of course it is wrong for the Eurozone too. The right monetary policy is not to have one. While that may be an unlikely prospect for the Eurozone, at least the EU and IMF are forcing the Irish government to finally engage in structural reform as a precondition for the bailout. I expect that in a few years time, after the reforms have been cemented, some of the aid will be written off. And when Ireland’s workforce starts to become competitive again and when the Irish economy recovers as it surely will, then it will slowly force reform in the labour markets of the central Eurozone too. In other words Merkel and co may not yet have the domestic clout to reform as much as they would like too, this crisis gives them an opportunity to force the periphery to move and that will have them domestically later.
@MPM: Does a Representative calling a President to his face a liar count?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR_Ol3VA37o
I was thinking of that. He was censured, but not sent out I think. Then again they weren’t holding a debate.