European Political News

113 days after the general elections of June 10th, Belgium still has no government. On Saturday evening, King Albert II reappointed Yves Leterme, the leader of the Flemish Christian-Democrat Party and the winner of last June’s elections, as “formateur” (Prime Minister Designate). The formateur has to put together a new cabinet. Leterme had already been formateur until August 23rd, but he was unable to forge an agreement between parties from Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking north, and Wallonia, the country’s French-speaking south.
 
Following Mr. Leterme’s previous failure, the King asked “royal scout” Herman Van Rompuy, a senior politician and a member of the Crown Council, to defuse the situation. It took Mr. Van Rompuy a month to get the parties to negotiate again. The Flemings, who are nett contributors to the generous Belgian welfare system, want a reform of this system, while the Walloons, who are nett beneficiaries, veto any reform.
 
Another point of disagreement is the split of the electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV). In 2003, Belgium’s Constitutional Court ruled that this constituency was unconstitutional because it allows Walloon parties to stand for election in parts of Flanders while Flemish parties are not allowed to stand for election anywhere in Wallonia. The Court told the Belgian politicians to remedy this situation by 2007, either by no longer allowing Walloon parties to stand in Flanders, or by allowing Flemish parties to stand in Wallonia. However, the Walloon parties do not want to alter the present – unconstitutional – situation unless Flanders pays a heavy price for it.
 
Mr. Leterme is currently under tremendous pressure to succeed in his task. He realizes that if he fails again it is unlikely that the King will give him a third chance to become Prime Minister. Mr. Leterme, who belongs to the trade union wing of his own party, is also under pressure from the very powerful Christian-Democrat trade union which opposes the splitting up of Belgium’s welfare system along linguistic lines. The trade union backs the “Save the Solidarity” petition launched last week by leftist intellectuals and artists. The aim of the petition is to keep Flanders paying for Wallonia’s welfare benefits.
 
In the past Walloon politicians have threatened that if the welfare system is split this will be the end of Belgium. For Wallonia Belgium’s only raison d’etre is that Wallonia can benefit from Flanders’ labour. Though the Flemings make up 60 per cent of the Belgians Walloon politicians have frequently threatened that if the Flemings use their democratic majority, e.g. to reform welfare or split BHV, it will be the end of Belgium.
 
In an interview in Het Laatste Nieuws, Flanders’ (and Belgium’s) largest newspaper, on 26 Feb. 2005,  Elio Di Rupo, the leader of the Walloon Socialists, was asked “What will happen if the Flemings use their majority in Parliament?” He answered: “That would be the end of Belgium.” The journalist objected: “That would be democratic rule, a majority in Parliament.” Whereupon Mr. Di Rupo said: “Then democracy will be the end of Belgium.”
 
Although the Walloon media depict Mr. Leterme as a Flemish hardliner, he is in fact a moderate. Mr. Leterme, the son of a Walloon father and a Flemish mother, is one of the few Belgians with family ties in both parts of the country. He does not deny that Belgium is an artificial construct, but does his best to keep the country together. This explains why the Flemish Christian-Democrats postponed the BHV debate in Parliament last week and why they refuse to consider the option of a Flemish secession. By depicting Mr. Leterme as a Flemish extremist Walloon politicians are trying to intimidate him into submitting to their demands. The strategy seems to work. There are persistent rumours that Mr. Leterme is currently aiming to form a government with the Walloons by offering to postpone the debate about welfare reform and the BHV question until after the 2009 regional elections. Mr. Leterme could make history by becoming the first president of an independent Flanders, but chooses to be the last Prime Minister of Belgium.
 
Meanwhile, the Belgian press is trying to frighten the growing group of Flemings who favour the establishment of an independent Flemish Republic. Last Saturday, Het Laatste Nieuws wrote that if Flanders secedes from Belgium, it will no longer be a member state of the European Union and will have to reapply for EU membership. This process would take several years, with all the other member states having to approve the country’s membership before it could (re)join. Wallonia, on the other hand, being the remnant of Belgium, would remain an EU member and, hence, would have the power to veto Flanders’ (re)accession to the EU.
 
This is most unlikely, not only because Flanders belongs to the Eurozone, but primarily because Flanders is a nett contributor to the EU, while Wallonia is a nett beneficiary. It would be nonsense for the Brussels EUrocrats to oust the Flemings and the money they bring in, while keeping the costly Walloons.
 
Three years ago, however, Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, warned that if Scotland (which, like Wallonia, is a nett beneficiary of EU subsidies) breaks away from the United Kingdom Edinburgh would have to reapply for membership of the European Union (EU). “A newly-independent region would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the (European) Union and the treaties would not apply any more in its territory,” Mr. Prodi said.
 
If a Flemish secession from Belgium were to lead to Flanders losing its EU membership, the Flemish Republic would probably prefer to join Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
 
If this happens it might also be an inspiration for English Eurosceptics. To get rid of EU membership, England should secede from the United Kingdom, instead of Scotland. England could then join Flanders and the other prosperous free-market nations in EFTA.

 
On the current crisis in Belgium, see also:

McKinsey CEO Calls for End of Belgium, Resigns, 13 December 2005

King Warns for Dissolution of Belgium, 1 February 2006

Flanders and France Vote for the Right. But Flanders Will Not Get What It Is Entitled To, 11 June 2007

The Influence of the Immigrant Vote on Belgian Politics, 26 June 2007

EU: The Model is Collapsing. Brussels Calls upon King for Help, 18 August 2007

After Belgium: Will Flanders and the Netherlands Reunite? 23 August 2007

King Summons Unelected Councillors to Solve Crisis. Will France Annex Wallonia? 28 August 2007

Royal Scout Keeps a Low Profile, Brussels Recalls Ambassador in Paris, 31 August 2007

Could Sarkozy Solve Belgium’s Crisis? 3 September 2007

Even Flemish Muslims Want to Separate from the Walloons, 6 September 2007

Crisis in Belgium: If Flanders Secedes Wallonia Disintegrates, 9 September 2007

After Belgium: Europe’s New Map, 13 September 2007

Thrembling Thrones in Brussels, 18 September 2007

Save Belgium: Postmodernists to the Rescue, 28 September 2007

 

Background articles explaining Belgium:

A City Without Water Is A City Without A Soul, 28 June 2005

How Flanders Helped Shape Freedom in America, 11 July 2005

The Dark Roots of the EU, 5 December 2005

Nations Under Construction: Defining Artificial States, 13 June 2006

Why Is the Vlaams Belang So Popular? 13 February 2007

Belgium, the EU’s Destiny. The End of Nothingness, 25 August 2007

Why Belgium Is an Artificial State. And the United Kingdom, Switzerland (and Even Austria-Hungary) Are Not, 27 August 2007

Is over at Imagined Community. The roundup is a compendium of outstanding posts in the Blogpower Network. Tags: britblog roundup, britblog

A quote from the Texas chapter of the League of the South, 30 September 2007

Ironically, [the crisis in Belgium] rises in the news as the League of the South holds its National Meeting in Chattanooga to coincide the Secessionist Conference.  The people of Flanders should be able to decide whether or not they want to be included with Belgium. The government in Brussels has done little to insure the safety and community of its citizens. The League supports and applauds the sovereign people of Flanders in their efforts at attaining independence.

A quote from The Tiraspol Times, 30 September 2007

Talks of splitting Belgium in two are being watched closely in both Chisinau and Tiraspol. Belgium is an artificial country which was created 170 years ago out of two separate groups with no prior history. And just like Belgium, Moldova and Transdniestria also don’t have a shared historical or ethnic past. […]

A leading Belgium politician, the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, visited both Moldova and Transdniestria in 2006. As the OSCE chairman he wanted to force Transdniestria into becoming part of Moldova, advocating a so-called “territorial integrity” which Moldova has never been able to enforce and which is now increasingly dubious in his own country; Belgium.

A quote from Lycurgus on The Daily Telegraph blog, 30 September 2007

Perhaps the best way to kill the Belgian state would be for the Flemish people en masse to ignore it, to cease paying taxes, to stop voting, to stop utilising whatever facilities still remain within its remit. These past 111 days have proved that a country can survive without a functioning government or at least under an impotent caretaker regime. The Flemish do not need to declare their formal independence at this stage all they need to do is to stop the flow of monies to Wallonia and to treat the Belgian government with the contempt and scorn that it merits, and in doing so they will provide a salutary lesson to us all that governments exist only so long as we are willing to put up with them.

There is a very curious effect going round: Guest Authors for the Guide appear to be publishing their chapters on the Net. It must be an “under the radar” marketing strategy, designed to give you an extended sample of the book and make you read the rest. So, dear reader, for an extended sample of the articles in the 2007 Guide to Political Blogging by Iain Dale (and 30 or so other people), take a look at the articles about: Blogging and women by Ellee Seymour Shotgun Blogging by Nadine Dorries MP (which title should be reserved for old times sake for Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and other terrorist godfathers’ when they get started blogging). If you come across any other sample chapters that have been published, do drop a comment in the box below. None of these is anything like as good as my chapter - but you’ll have to buy the book to disprove that claim, as I can say that I will not be publishing my chapters about “Getting Started in Political Blogging” quite so quickly. However, I will be publishing a longer version as part of my “Nuts and Bolts of Political Blogging” E-Book in a few weeks (i.e., when I have put several current projects to bed). I’ll make one other point, now traditional on this blog: Get a UK domain name for your political blog. If you don’t, it is MUCH more difficult to reach the British public through Google UK. Of the 53 or so “leading bloggers” (quotes because it includes me) profiled in the Guide, roughly 40 are still on international domain names. In my opinion, people who do that are rather foolish - blogging is a difficult enough race as it is, without applying a handicap to yourself as well. With the current “Alisher Usmanov and Schillings lawyers seeking to close down blogs” problem, you must consider your resilience - but you still need a UK domain name for your blog. Tags: guide to political blogging, political blogging, iain dale  

A quote from the BBC in The Daily Mail, 29 September 2007

Al Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East. People linked to al Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the U.S.A, and in other countries.

A quote from Labour MP Frank Field in The Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2007

Yet it is not on Scotland that all eyes should be turned but on England itself. The few polls that have asked the same question of the English as well as the Scots show that English voters want greater independence from the Union than their counterparts north of the border.

A Newsnight survey found that a clear 61 per cent of English voters think they should have their own parliament and that this proposition was supported by a majority of Scottish voters. Another poll revealed that a greater proportion of English voters wanted independence for England than did Scottish voters for Scotland.

The English question is the great giant in British politics that is now beginning to awake from slumber induced by the first devolution of power to Scotland.

A quote from the Huntsman on his blog, 29 September 2007

One important point that was made concerned the degree to which England has over the last one thousand years had so much to do with The Low Countries (a phrase that is now in desuetude but which I use here as neutral code for both Flanders and The Netherlands), often to the mutual commercial benefit of each party and often in ways which enriched us culturally as well as economically. […]

So the relationship of England and Flanders over the centuries seems to have been largely a good one, built on sound economic ties and not marred by the sorts of constant warfare which have characterised, before 1603, our relationship with Scotland (and the odd little blip since then) and, until the Great War, our relationship with France. […]

[T]here is in all this a sound message is that if Belgium splits, England might care to look to Flanders to develop anew a close relationship built on mutual respect, history, shared economic interests and development of a more Atlanticist approach to the many mutual interests that exist. And if Flanders should ever want to come knocking at our door with a proposal….well, we should look at them as our equals from whom we can learn much (not least how to make those wonderful chocolates!) and who would be a much more attractive partner than the Painted Picts who cost us an arm and a leg and who show no real signs of wanting to give up their Wallonia-style Socialist and Statist model.

And, if Flanders wants to go it alone, she should know that many here will be understanding of her motives and will wish her well in her great undertaking which now seems to have a degree of inevitability about it and that many of us will hope to refresh the ties of friendship which have long existed between us.

You can now send in requests for the special blog buttons with the rank of your blog in one of Iain Dale’s “Top 100 Blogs” lists. Full details are here.

In my inbox: xxxxxxx will increase the capacity limit of the Corpora Cavernosa thus allowing more blood to enter the cavern creating a longer and thicker… PLEASE Mr Spammer … not before breakfast … you clearly need to go away and get laid… Tags: spam, penis enlargement

A quote from the leader of The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, 27 September 2007

[I]t matters less and less whether the European Union has 25 member nations, as is currently the case, or 26, or 30, in the same territory. Inside a single European entity there may be room for many splinters of former nations – including Flanders and Wallonia.

Below is a letter that has appeared on the internal Eurocrat letters forum. (My translation). In a follow up it is suggested that Shell is running a similar scheme.

On the way for Antwerp this Sunday morning, we stopped to fill the tank at the Total station in Kontich. Our vehicle is registered in the United Kingdom and inspires confidence. To our great amazement, we are forced to pay upfront, before taking the petrol, When we questioned this procedure and its inbuilt suspicion of us as customers the employee, (who was the only one there) told us that our "number plate" is not recognized by the "system". He explained to us that all cars stopping to fill up are filmed and that their number plates are immediately sent to the central control and information processing unit of Total which has the files of all registration numbers in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Holland. If the car is not registered in one of these 5 countries or is not included in one of the 5 files, one must pay upfront. Therefore, a multinational (TOTAL) has information to which in theory, (obviously in theory), the national police force has access to!

Do we now have to regard the multinational TOTAL as an auxiliary service of these 5 National police forces? He could not answer a question about stolen vehicles or those driven for other reasons. One would suppose that if you turned up in a stolen vehicle from one of these 5 countries, you will be able to fill up your tank and to leave without paying. And without being worried, since this is the only possible argument in favour of this anti-theft system: indeed, in Belgium, the courts no longer chase customers who do not pay!
Overall, this situation is unacceptable and it would be interesting to see where else this is happening and to discover the true reasons of these "Big Brother" controls.

If this is true it is extremely concerning. As the correspondent points out, if the system is set up to stop theft from petrol pumps it will only stop theft from cars outwith the five countries. If a stolen car uses the pump and drives off there is nothing that the system can do to block it. Unless...unless the system run by Total, and maybe other oil companies has access to the central police computers.
And if they have access to the central police computers that has to be in breach of all sorts of data protection provisions. And if not why would a big oil company spend all that money setting up such as system that had such a fundamental flaw?

I think we should be told.

Aside
One word in the letter I found I could in no way directly translate. "Anti-grivèlerie". This word I discover seems to mean, "a system set up to stop people from taking a service and leaving without paying", such as a restaurant or in this case a petrol station, so with a broader remit than the English 'shoplifting'. I suppose the practise must be common in France, which is why they have a word for it. As in the case of 'schadenfreude' the enjoyment of another's discomfort in Germany.
Thus I propose, seeing as the French have a word for a concept that we lack, and as English is a magpie language, that we co-opt this word. Maybe we should anglicise it first, thus;

Grivel: Verb, "To appropriate goods or services without the intention of paying for them" (French root: grivèler : réaliser des profits illicites ou consommer sans être en mesure de payer)
Example, "Of course we have the money for lunch darling, I grivelled the hotel this morning"

 

Dear Wardman Wire Readers, We’re in the midst of conference season, so I thought it might be worth a peek behind the scenes at Britain’s first internet-based political TV station; 18 Doughty Street - just so you can digest something a little bit different. During the last conference season we were just gearing up towards our launch and focussed on handing out flyers to promote ourselves. In the early days people really didn’t get what we were about at all. We even had a local councillor from a few boroughs away pop in one morning thinking that we were a traditional radio station set up just for Tories. I pointed her to Tory Radio initially, but then learned that she didn’t have access to the internet, or even a telephone for that matter, so perhaps the new media revolution was not quite for her. Back in those days we were definitely branded with the Tory brush. It was our own fault I guess, but as time went on we realised there was much more to be had by occupying the centre-ground of politics and giving all areas a voice. We increased the number of programmes presented by left-wing presenters: Talking with Tatchell, Wolmar’s World and Claire Fox News (although Claire is a tough one to define on the left-right axis - her programme is very good.) As we approach a year of broadcasting I look back at the technology behind our operation and wonder if we got it right first time. We’re actively looking at throwing out the Windows Media Format and bringing in the Flash video for starters. You see, Windows Media Format doesn’t play nicely with Macs, or Linux, or any other system that is not Windows for that matter. But, on the other hand, the set-top-boxes that will offer internet TV only support Windows Media Format at the moment. So, the question I am asking myself is: Do we go after the browser-based market with Flash or focus on the set-top-box market with Windows Media Format? I’ve not yet found an answer; and the main reason for that is because it is so hard to see where the set-top-box market is going at the moment. BT Vision have taken an early lead, but models are starting to pop up that do actually support Flash and even tune you into YouTube. The appeal of these might well outweigh the offering from BT Vision in a few months. Of course, the other option is to just do both formats. There is equipment that will allow us to do that, but before we spend the thousands of pounds needed to procure it we have to be sure that we’re going to benefit from it. My directors don’t want equipment sat around not being utilised properly, and I can quite understand this. Another area that I’ve been reflecting on is the website itself. We’ve had a number of attempts to get this right and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think it’s time for a slimmer offering - perhaps taking the approach of other video websites out there. Those sites have videos on the front page and you can jump around to other videos on the site. There’s categories, keywords, tagclouds, and other innovative features, including very good search engines. There are two issues with moving to that style of delivery. First, the Flash issue as mentioned above - we’d almost definitely have to put everything into Flash, which means expensive equipment needs to be acquired. Second, is the consideration for live streaming. When I look at websites I try to follow the activities of the end-user and imagine them sat there using the site. If they’re landing on the site during live broadcast hours and hit the player on the front page what happens if they then decide they want to click away into something on the sidebar, for example? That means the page reloads and the video is lost. A potential solution to this is to use some JavaScript to load the player in a new window whenever a link is clicked. And so the process goes on - thinking about every possible action the user might take on the site and coming up with an answer - it’s not easy, particularly with such a diverse range of shows. Alas, another year, another project. The journey goes on. We get our cameras ready to make the journey to Blackpool and wonder if we’ll ever be able to capture all the footage we collect in time - another bit of kit needed there, perhaps. Indeed, we might need to get new bits of kit here and there, but on the whole we’re holding together quite nicely. Even I have to admit to having my doubts at various points, but like the time I quit smoking, I tell myself that if we’ve made it this far we can go further. I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s guest post. Please do leave a comment if you can. Mike Rouse

Aaron Timms of The Sydney Morning Herald loves Belgium. In a column this week, Mr. Timms writes

“Belgium long ago abandoned all hope of being a presence on the world stage and gave itself over to the pleasures of alcohol, chocolate, sex and seafood. To this day, it remains a nation untouched by nutrition. These are ideas worth fighting for. In its almost total lack of ambition, in its unrelenting sense of existential dread, in its drunkenness and in its gluttony, Belgium is the most inspiring of nations. If the Belgians have tired of being Belgian, it is up to us to take their place. If Belgium will not be Belgium, it is up to Australia to be Belgium.”

 
Though Mr. Timms’ article is a parody, he is far closer to the truth than many of the other articles which the international press published recently. In 1998 a group of leftist Belgian intellectuals and artists wrote the pamphlet “Lets Stop Nationalistic Foolishness” in which they express their adherence to Belgium. They love Belgium for exactly the same reasons as Mr. Timms, but, unlike the latter, they are serious. They cherish the Belgian flag, they wrote, “because the latter does not represent anything.” They added that Belgium, precisely because it has no national consciousness, is “an antidote against nationalism” much needed by the postmodern world.
 
The Belgian historian Louis Vos (who sympathizes with this view) remarks, “a non-ideological postmodernism has become the predominant fashion in international life, more eager to deconstruct national identity than to make a contribution to it. Some go so far as to deny that the ‘invented’ concept of national identity and community refers to anything real.”
 
The postmodernist nihilists claim that Belgium’s lack of identity constitutes a supreme morality. An identity is nothing to be proud of, they wrote in their pamphlet, but Belgium is something to be proud of exactly because it is nothing. These nihilists cherish only two flags, those of Belgium and of the EU, because these stand for nothing. They hate the flags of Flanders, Britain, France, America and other countries which stand for something.
 
Yesterday, the same group of intellectuals and artists, who do not believe in anything, started a petition in favour of Belgium. The petition, called “Red de solidariteit” (Save the solidarity), argues that Flanders, the Dutch-speaking free-market oriented northern half of Belgium, has a moral duty to keep paying for Wallonia, the French-speaking Socialist-oriented southern half, and that hence Belgium should continue to exist. The petition is being actively supported by the powerful Belgian trade unions and by Belgian state radio and television and has already been signed by university professors, sportsmen, and various artists (writers, singers, actors,…) and other government-subsidized “famous Belgians.”
 
The text of the “Save the Solidarity” petition reads:

We are Flemings, Brusselers or Walloons, we are Belgians and world citizens. We do not want to erect new walls between people, between regions and countries. We do not want to replace the solidarity principle by competition and egotism. Who gains when people are incited against each other?
 
Everything we have in Belgium today is the common work of Flemings, Brussels people and Walloons. The solidarity between the richer and the poorer citizens and between the richer and the poorer regions are the pillars of our society.
 
We demand decent wages for everyone who does the same job, no matter which language we speak. We demand that all compatriots have the same rights to healthy and safe living and working conditions, no matter where our factory or office is located. We demand that everyone who loses his job is entitled to the same assistance and help, no matter in which region we live. We demand that every child in this country gets the same chances, no matter in which region it is born. We demand that all the elderly have the same right to a decent pension, no matter whether they live in Flanders, Brussels or Wallonia. In short, we demand solidarity and no splitting up [of the country].

 

The text of this petition is a clear illustration that there is no core to Belgium. The country is but a redistribution mechanism from “the richer” to “the poorer.” The richer are richer only because they work harder. The solidarity which the poorer demand is not voluntary, but based on extortion. No wonder, so many Flemings have had enough of it.

Solidarity in Belgium is (and has always been) a one-way affair, with the Flemings at the contributing and the Walloons at the receiving end. Indeed, the current crisis in Belgium results from the fact that the Flemings want the right to decide what happens to their money, while Walloon politicians veto any reform of the generous Belgian welfare system.
 
Meanwhile the entire Belgian establishment, including the Catholic Church, is coming to the rescue of Belgium. “In our time we have to learn to live together with different opinions. In my opinion dividing Belgium would be an impoverishment and a wrong signal for Europe,” Monsignor Roger Vangheluwe, the Catholic Bishop of Bruges (the diocese covering the province of West Flanders), said yesterday. Exactly 101 years ago, in September 1906, his predecessor, Mgr Gustave Waffelaerts, the Bishop of Bruges, opposed Dutch-language higher education for his Dutch-language flock, admonishing them that it is “unchristian and against the Catholic principles to aim for a Dutch-language university.”
 
Today, it is considered immoral for Flemings to want to decide themselves who will benefit from the fruit of their labour.
 
Yesterday, the Flemish and Walloon political leaders resumed their negotiations to form a new government. Rumour has it that the Flemish politicians will soon give in and agree with the Walloons to establish a cabinet. Apparently they have been convinced of the necessity to save Belgium. “Everyone can be bought. Everyone has his price, and you will be surprised how low it is,” a friend, a British politician, recently told me when we were discussing the Belgian crisis. If this is true, Belgium will continue to drag on until the next elections in 2009, when the Flemish electorate will be able to repeat to the authorities in Brussels that they have had enough of the drunkenness and the gluttony, which nihilists have the audacity to call “solidarity.”

 

On the current crisis in Belgium, see also:

McKinsey CEO Calls for End of Belgium, Resigns, 13 December 2005

King Warns for Dissolution of Belgium, 1 February 2006

Flanders and France Vote for the Right. But Flanders Will Not Get What It Is Entitled To, 11 June 2007

The Influence of the Immigrant Vote on Belgian Politics, 26 June 2007

EU: The Model is Collapsing. Brussels Calls upon King for Help, 18 August 2007

After Belgium: Will Flanders and the Netherlands Reunite? 23 August 2007

King Summons Unelected Councillors to Solve Crisis. Will France Annex Wallonia? 28 August 2007

Royal Scout Keeps a Low Profile, Brussels Recalls Ambassador in Paris, 31 August 2007

Could Sarkozy Solve Belgium’s Crisis? 3 September 2007

Even Flemish Muslims Want to Separate from the Walloons, 6 September 2007

Crisis in Belgium: If Flanders Secedes Wallonia Disintegrates, 9 September 2007

After Belgium: Europe’s New Map, 13 September 2007

Thrembling Thrones in Brussels, 18 September 2007
 

 

Background articles explaining Belgium:

A City Without Water Is A City Without A Soul, 28 June 2005

How Flanders Helped Shape Freedom in America, 11 July 2005

The Dark Roots of the EU, 5 December 2005

Nations Under Construction: Defining Artificial States, 13 June 2006

Why Is the Vlaams Belang So Popular? 13 February 2007

Belgium, the EU’s Destiny. The End of Nothingness, 25 August 2007

Why Belgium Is an Artificial State. And the United Kingdom, Switzerland (and Even Austria-Hungary) Are Not, 27 August 2007

A conversation allegedly overheard from 3 miles away, through an eartrumpet held the wrong way round so as to diminish the volume: “Well, Mr Schilling, how goes our PR strategy ???” “Er. Ahem. We are … er … generating a much higher profile on the Internet, Mr Usmanov - in fact we have achieved unprecedented coverage about your activities …” “Olga !!! Bring me my Makarov !!!” If Mr Usmanov were employing Schillings Lawyers to generate attention for himself rather than to try and muzzle it, they would be performing very well indeed. Here are a couple of graphs from the useful Blogpulse Service, which racks how much attention is being devoted to different topics on the blogs. The first bulge is Alisher Usmanov buying part of Arsenal. The second bulge is the interest after Mr Usmanov used Schillings Lawyers to close down Craig Murray’s critical website. (more…) Previous in series

The transcript of the speech made by Member of the European Parliament has been published on the European Parliament website. In the speech, Tom Wise MEP restates some of the allegations made by Craig Murray about Mr Alisher Usmanov, which he has attempted to keep out of the public domain by using defamation and “reputation protection” specialists Schillings. If you are carrying a self-produced transcript of the speech, I suggest you update it. Audio Recording Speech This is the (somewhat crackly) audio: Download audio file (20070925-european-parliament-energy-policy-tom-wise-A6-0312-2007.mp3) You can get a copy here at blip.tv, or download one from my site here. Official Transcript of Speech Thomas Wise (IND/DEM). " Madam President, when the EU talks of a common foreign policy on energy, you need to be very aware of exactly who you propose to do business with. President Putin is on record as saying The Commission should be under no illusions. If it wants to buy Russian gas, it has to deal with the Russian state. Gazprom is not a private company. It is a state-controlled tool of Russian foreign policy. It is, moreover, in the hands of President Putins political henchmen and, allegedly, organised crime. Take, for example, Alisher Usmanov. This gentleman, the son of a Communist apparatchik, is Chairman of Gazprom Invest Holdings, the group that handles Gazproms business activities outside Russia. He is the man we are doing business with. He is the man who cuts off gas supplies if client states dare to question Gazproms demands. Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he served a six-year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Uzbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rakhimov, described as Usmanovs mentor. Usmanov bought the newspaper Kommersant. Three months later the journalist Ivan Safronov, a critic of the Putin regime who just weeks earlier had been vigorously interrogated by the FSB, as the KGB is now called, mysteriously fell to his death from his apartment window, still clutching a recently purchased bag of shopping. According to Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, it was Usmanov who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year. Please take note, Madam President, the Kremlin has now refused to sanction the construction of a pipeline to the EU over Georgian territory. These are the people you want to do business with. These are the people around whom you want to mould your foreign policy on energy. Commissioner, good luck. You will need it. Tags: tom wise mep, alisher usmanov, mr usmanov, schillings, schillings lawyers, schillings defamation lawyers, craig murray, bloggerheads, tim ireland Previous in series Next in series

A splendid Thought for the Day this morning about the start of Democracy in the UK by Rev Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney on the subject of Religion and Democracy - and inspired by the pro-Democracy Protests in Myanmar/Burma being spearheaded by Bhuddist Monks, and reported via blogs. He takes us back to 1649, when the Levellers (Diggers) were developing ideas of equality. One of the most famous meetings was held in his church - St Mary, Putney. Religion was at the heart of the Levellers’ radical political theory, that before God all human beings are counted as free. Download audio file (20070928-bbc-radio4-thought-for-the-day-giles-fraser.mp3) I usually find Giles Fraser hugely irritating and broad-brush in his comments on religion, but this historial account was refreshing. Tags: burma, myanmar, bhuddist monks, bhudist monks, buddist monks, religion, democracy, giles fraser, st mary putney

A quote from Cal Thomas in The Daily Journal, 25 September 2007

Britons give many reasons for leaving, but their stories share one commonality: life in Britain has become unbearable. They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of Britishness, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation. What it means to be British has been watered down in a plague of political correctness. […]

Abraham Lincoln said no nation can exist half slave and half free. Neither can a nation be sustained if it allows conditions that result in mass emigration, while importing huge numbers of foreigners who come from backgrounds that do not practice assimilation or tolerance of other beliefs. When one factors in the high number of abortions (one in five pregnancies are aborted in England and Wales), the high birth rates of immigrants (15 times those of white Britons), it doesn't take an expert to predict that the days of the England we have known may be numbered.

The problem for Britain and the United States isn't just the change in demographics. It is the reluctance of both countries to inculcate the beliefs, history and, yes, religious ideals, which made our nations so successful that others wanted to come and be a part of them.

A quote from Patrick J. Buchanan on townhall.com, 28 September 2007

What enables Wallonia to block formation of a government is a parliamentary system where Flanders and Wallonia must each assent to any government. Which means that half of the Walloons, 20 percent of Belgium’s population, holds veto power over a national government.

A quote from Bruce Thornton at victorhanson.com, 26 September 2007

Across Europe the left has found in Islam a convenient ally, since both hate the core political goods of the West, liberal democracy and free-market economies, and both hate Christianity – the same mayor of Brussels who silenced European Christians greeted the death of Pope John Paul II with a call for champagne. Al Qaeda understands this Western self-hatred, which is why bin Laden speaks to us about economic oppression, colonialism, even environmentalism, issues about which he cares nothing but which create common cause with the anti-Western left.

Perhaps nothing better shows the lunatic folly of these attitudes than the experience of a German Christian in the Place de Luxembourg on 9/11 (See Brussels Journal). He was arrested after he took out a wooden cross and started praying to himself. There you have the terminal sickness of EUtopia: publicly exercising your right of free speech and displaying the symbol of the faith that created Europe in the first place will get you arrested, even as the E.U. elite bend over backwards to profess their admiration for and to indulge the intolerant, imperialistic faith that for fourteen centuries their ancestors fought and defeated. That’s how EUtopia will end: with the terrorist’s bang followed by the appeaser’s whimper.

Jon Worth’s Euroblog (with a nice, elegant design) has an interesting post some time ago:Getting to grips with the Euro-Blogosphere, where Jon had “attempted to group together all the different EU blogs I read into some sort of categories”. A useful summary. There has been an slow rolling discussion in the comments, which I’ve mined for interesting nuggets: How should a Parliamentary Group use a blog? Kerry: You mention rightly that the Socialist Group in the European Parliament is developing its blog presence. We are trying! What we would like to do is provide interesting insight and useful info whilst listening to what people are thinking about Europe and social democracy. Any constructive comments about how a political group could get more involved in the world of blogs would be really welcome. Thanks. Jon: I reckon there are a few things a political group should bear in mind (1) What is the point of the blog, above and beyond the press and comms work done already? The blog should not just be a summary of what has been written elsewhere. (2) It needs to be updated often. Thats more important than who it is that writes the entries. However with a large number of MEPs getting some contributions should not be too hard. (3) Dont be afraid to be informal - the style you need to use is very different from most other forms of writing for politics. How did you choose ‘em, guvnor? Martin Keegan: Are you really only familiar with three Eurosceptic weblogs? Or is there just some selection criterion Ive not spotted which is excluding others? Jon: The selection criteria are no more advanced than these are EU-related blogs that I have come across and have felt have decent content. If you think others should be added the please just write them here in a comment and Ill incorporate them. The Economist Just a shameless plug to say The Economist now has a European blog, Certain Ideas of Europe. If you are really, really, really EU-focussed: Florian: Can you add to the list blogs which deal with European communications and European institutions and procedures in general? Id like to read and discuss more on that, e.g. on the comitology reform or the clash between Kallas and public affairs organisations on lobbying. (ed: “!!) Tags: jon worth, euroblog, european union, euro, eurosceptic (more…)

There’s still a lot more to say - not least that I have still not had a peep out of Schillings, despite sending them a request for an interview within a day of all this going public, and repeating the request this week. However, we are getting a persistent response, from a personage styling himself - anonymously - “bf bache”, operating from an anonymous email address and an untraceable IP address. Mr (or Ms) Bache has been trolling around dozens of blog posts since this story started adding comments that gradually expand with each new article. It’s like an online game of “My Grandma went shopping and she bought…” … a paragraph from Iain Dale, a sentence from Matt Wardman, a couple of words from the Devil’s Kitchen, and so on. The resulting miraculous ever-expanding boilerplate comment - like an everlasting stew (keep adding ingredients and recooking until you’re sick of stew) - has been used to respond to articles making all sorts of different points. Note, Mr Bache, that you are allowed the freedom to debate that Mr Alisher Usmanov and Schillings lawyers have attempted to deny Mr Craig Murray and Tim Ireland by legal threats and without proper process. This is a Fisking of the version of the Universal Comment left on my article on Monday. If this is too short, try the first article in Unity’s series examining British Libel Law. Well worth a read. He is starting to move the agenda onto the strategic questions that need to be addressed. Fisking Mr “BF” Bache Mr Bache’s statements are in italics. My replies are in Roman type. I see that you have been posting from an entirely anonymous and untraceable email address, across many blogs reporting this story. Why do you feel the need? Great Britain is free. The unwritten constitution is secure. No one is throwing Craig Murray into the Gulag. He is no John Peter Zenger. He is no Georgi Markov. He is no Anna Politkovskaya. He has committed no crime. The dispute between him and Mr. Usmanov is wholly within the competence of the civil courts of which either man may avail himself, should he choose to do so. So why is it acceptable that Craig Murray is prevented to express his point of view? (more…) Previous in series

I’m glad to see that the Miliblog is now back online, only this time as a group blog together with Minister for Europe Jim Murphy, and 4 FCO civil servants too. I hope he manages to surpass his posts about burping cows on the old Defra blog… More generally it’s good that government departments are making efforts to use the internet in interesting ways, although my main fear is this: who is actually going to believe what’s on the FCO blogs any more than they believe anything on any other government website? If we are to manage to start to dispel the myths about the EU pumped out online by EU Referendum and others then some more viral communications methods are going to have to be found.

I’ll lighten up the Alisher Usmanov and Schillings Lawyers (those Craig Murray Usmanov allegations, blog buttons ) coverage today. This is an old Gaping Void cartoon - but it makes the point very well. And I promise at least one non-Alisher Usmanov Article today on the Wardman Wire, and the wonderful Mike Rouse Tech Talk column tomorrow or at the weekend. Cartoon: Gaping Void Tags: cartoon, hugh macleod, gaping void, alisher usmanov, schillings lawyers Previous in series Next in series

A quote from the BBC’s Mark Mardell, 27 September 2007

It’s probably an arrogant, very English way of seeing it, but to me there is no denying that Belgium can seem like an argument between the more “Anglo-Saxon” Flemish and their French-speaking neighbours.

The Finns are not always known for their humour, but JEF-Finland has managed to make a funny set of movies busting the myths about the EU. They are posted on the Kurkkudirektiivi (trans: Cucumber Directives) website. Apparently the Finns put some sort of tar(?) in their food, and the EU wants to ban this according to the myth, but it’s not actually true. The tar police come and cart some people away in the first of the movies. It’s all a bit surreal, and I do wish they would make some versions with sub-titles. But the next time Margot Wallström is looking for some communications inspiration then maybe she should turn to some young Finnish federalists.

A quote from the Huntsman on his blog, 26 September 2007
 
I wish to throw in an eighteenth possibility to the list of seventeen possibilities suggested at the link above, which is that, instead of Flanders going it alone, it should join the United Kingdom.
 
And why not?
 
We may well see Scotland slope off to some sort of shadow existence as a statelet to our North. Some opine that this would be a good thing for that which is left, for Scotland is palpably a drag on the rest of our economy and costs Englishmen dear, given the enormous subventions to which handout-junkie Scotland has become so addicted as it seeks to feather-bed its citizens without having to go through the pain of actually paying for all the goodies they get.
 
Whimsy?
 
With a population of six million, Flanders definitely punches above its weight economically, with a GDP of some $ 232 billion in 2004 (approx. US$ 38,000 per capita) compared with Scotland’s five million who may have produced a GDP of US$ 172 billion in 2006 at US$ 33,000 per capita. Losing Scotland would be a boon, gaining Flanders a veritible shot in the arm. Their industries would make a good match for our own and there exist excellent communications with Flanders via our East Coast ports and Antwerp. They are conservative in inclination with an enthusiasm for the free market and capitalism which would not be difficult to harness as support for the Anglo-Saxon model. Much of their country resembles parts of East Anglia and as for the language thing, well, we are well used to the problem now with our Celts, so that can be accommodated and, in any event, Flemings speak English with a facility that is going to put some of our educationally-challenged citizens at a disadvantage. Their distaste for and experience of the dead hand of Socialism in Wallonia would surely put the wind up Labour who might see their ability to win a majority in the United Kingdom Of Great Britain, Flanders and Northern Ireland disappear completely.

It sounds like a nice line to take - the EU should stop its institutional navel gazing and get on with delivering results, looking outwards to deal with the threats in the world. Those were the words of David Miliband in his speech to the Labour Party Conference this week, as reported in The Guardian and at BBC News Online.

But think about it for a moment. The Labour governments since 1997 have been paranoid about structures - creating different forms of devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, establishing cabinet systems and directly elected mayors in local government, and making botched efforts to reform the House of Lords. Most recently Brown at a stroke created BERR, DIUS and DCSF (more from the Number 10 website). If that all of that is not the result of a bout of national institutional navel gazing, then what is?

It’s just at EU level there are 2 important differences. Firstly, making any institutional change needs the agreement of 27 Member States. That’s a lot harder than just putting a paper in the House of Commons Library. Secondly, the EU has a constitutional framework of sorts - its treaties - and hence the debate is structured in terms of amendments to text, rather than the executive just getting on changing things. Few EU countries would accept so much institutional change nationally as the UK has swallowed in the last 10 years with barely a squeak of opposition from the general public; the EU is never going to manage so much, so quickly.

let’s face it: the issues at stake with the European Constitution, and subsequently the Reform Treaty, are not going to go away. The pressures for more democratic accountability, more streamlined institutions and decision making, and the need to be honest that the EU is more than an international institution but less than a state, will not ever be finally ’settled’. A goal-orientated EU is no bad thing, but that will need a delicate balance of institutional reforms, political leadership and sensible legislation; to argue otherwise runs counter to the experience of 50 years of EU integration.

I’ve been posting very heavily recently about Mr Usmanov and his Lawyers Schillings’ attempts to close down criticism on the net, and for some readers this may be a little too much. I’m going to be chasing this campaign for some time, but the posting rate will come down to around once a day on Mr Usmanov and his follies. However, can avoid most of the Usmanov postings by reading the UK version of this site (which carries nearly all the politics posts and less of the technical ones) at: www.mattwardman.co.uk Tags: announcement, usmanov, wardman wire uk

I’ve done a few more buttons for you to use on your webpages. There are a couple that are a touch more humerous. I’m also aiming to emphasize the substantive question behind this problem - that of the UK’s inadequate legal framework - as well as the specific issue of pre-emptive legal threats by Schillings’ Lawyers made against websites on behalf of Mr Alisher Usmanov. I’ve reproduced all the previous English buttons at the bottom of this article, to avoid any need to go digging around. You are welcome to link back here to allow people to get the badges. I’m cross posting this to Poliblog Perspective, as it is not a party-political post. Here are the Buttons (more…) Previous in series Next in series