Its been a while since your last post and i remember reading on your Telegraph blog that your wife had been ill. Hope all is fine with her and you too.

FBJ

The question is, is this a “natural” “evolution” of liberal democracy to liberal oligarchy through the rational choices of the governing actors, or is it, say, the result of increased media scrutiny that curtails the politicians freedom to maneuver in plain view? Or is it the result of increased income gaps, that leave an increasing number of citizen poor and marginalized and erodes social capital and the grass roots of democratic movements?

Dear Sirs,

The European Union (EU) is said to have been established by the Treaty on European Union signed in 1992. However, taking advantage of your neutrality, I would like to question the EU’s existence based on the following considerations:

First, the Treaty on European Union explicitly states that the EU “shall be founded on the European Communities” (Article A of the Treaty on European Union, renamed to Article 1); however, the EU does not replace, substitute or succeed the existing European Communities. A careful look into the Treaty on EU shows two most interesting facts: (i) the newly “established” union does not have legal personality, and (ii) it does not have any own institutions – in spite of the common misperception, the European institutions (e.g. European Commission, European Parliament, European Court of Justice, etc.) are in fact institutions serving the European Communities (clearly stated in the respective legal name of most of these, e.g. Commission of the European Communities, Court of Justice of the European Communities, etc.). Further, the copyright holder for all official publications by the European institutions in no one else but the European Community (or the European Communities) as clearly demonstrated by the copyright notice of official documents released by the European institutions.

Second, the Treaty of Lisbon is the first legal act to grant the EU legal personality by amending the existing Treaty on European Union and Treaty Establishing the European Community and renaming the latter to Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The amended Treaty on European Union for the first time reads that the EU “shall replace and succeed the European Community” (Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) and that it “shall have legal personality” (Article 47 of the Treaty on European Union as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon). However, the Treaty of Lisbon is still not in force and, hence, its provisions have no legal power.

In view of the above I would like to raise the question “Does the European Union exist at all?”

Sincerely,

Svetoslav Apostolov

I read it between picnic basket feasts and to save you any unnecessary illusions I don’t give a rotten sandwich for UK internal politics, especially a campaign in the UK to get the government to take you out of the EU. In fact that sort of thing is seriously irrelevant on this playing field. What we hammer at here is inter-state commerce and such things. For example, uniform cell phone rates across the Union. Others, hopefully, such as rationalization of foreign affairs will save tax payers a hefty burden. Were we to go through all the different departments of state making savings everywhere the Common Market grow by large fractions of its current worth.

As is being suggested, this is not a good place to run a program such as yours. It suggests, to be honest, to an intelligent reader that you are one brick short of a load.

No offense intended and none taken!

“Hey Booboo where’s my napkin? “

Voltaire :

Anne Palmer: “Our National Health Service is crumbling along with many other services we would like to keep. Why? Because we simply cannot afford to keep paying £4 million a day to this \Club\ and the extra costs through EU legislation. We cannot afford TWO Governments, Two Parliaments, 12 Regions, ect, here in the United Kingdom. We certainly will not and never could be loyal to any foreigner or those foreigners that want to govern us.
We fought for FREEDOM and many died fighting for that FREEDOM, …”

In your own place and in your own Parliament you may elect a government with the aim of taking the UK out of the European Union.
There is nobody reading this website who has any interest in such things so your postings here are a waste of your time.
Take your campaign to your own local arena where it may help you achieve your ends, and please do leave us to discuss here inter-state European matters.
Voltaire

Withdrawal from the EU on legitimate grounds is an interstate EU matter.
Do you fear reprisals from the EU’s anti-blasphemy law or something? By fearing the EU, you grant it legitimacy, even more than defending it by rhetoric.
You can’t be the real Voltaire, who defends to the death the people’s right to say what they want, despite not agreeing with it. Perhaps you should do what you do “in your own place and on your own time”?

Divided Loyalty.

How easily fickle man doth embrace
That flag with twelve stars on blue,
To dislodge a flag that over time
Won the loyalty of those that knew
The brave that fought and paid the price
To keep their flag flying high.
That flag of St George for England
And those that survived know why.

To prevent a tyrant who would rule the world
And his swastika from flying above,
No two flags can have pride of place
For it is only their own flag they love.
Yet another flag now wants pride of place
In our hearts as well as minds,
But will it become a symbol of hate
If forced, and in the fullness of time?

Loyalty and allegiance comes with national flags,
Those too play an important part,
We cannot shed either so easily,
One flag will have to depart.
Is there a choice, a chance to decide
Twixt Country, or the State of EU?
For WE will never embrace that flag
What YOU do, is up to you.

We fought for FREEDOM and many died fighting for that FREEDOM, …”

In your own place and in your own Parliament you may elect a government with the aim of taking the UK out of the European Union.

There is nobody reading this website who has any interest in such things so your postings here are a waste of your time.

Take your campaign to your own local arena where it may help you achieve your ends, and please do leave us to discuss here inter-state European matters.

Voltaire

We fought for FREEDOM and many died fighting for that FREEDOM, and we have come too close to losing it by those that have no idea what being bombed to Hell meant here in the UK. The people are at last waking up to the fact that they have been voting for a Government and Parliament that cannot govern and has to obey the same orders as the rest of us. No wonder the people are angry. They have been made fools of for over thirty-five years. Not only that, they now realise that the people they voted for have \made many mistakes\ for haven’t they said?

“I made a mistake, I claimed more than I should,
But I’ve paid it back now, surely you knew that I would?”
Those are the words that roll off the tongues
From those that knew what they did was wrong,
Yet t’was not just one person that made ‘a mistake’,
There’s quite a long list of those ‘on the take’.