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Samizdata quote of the day

· European Union · UK affairs

But why should those of us who want to leave the EU feel any obligation to accept the particular vision of the UK’s future offered by Gove or anyone else? Why the insistence that we couldn’t vote to leave the EU without a clearly worked out plan about what happens next? The referendum question boils down to the question of control: who decides what the UK should do in relation to the economy, immigration, trade rules or anything else? Those things should be decided in Westminster, not Brussels.

– Rob Lyons

May 13th, 2016 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)

Brexit: The Movie

· European Union

I am watching Brexit: The Movie. I am only about half an hour in and I am learning a lot. I did not realise how little power the European Parliament had or how many different councils and presidents there were. The tone is measured and reasonable, rather than polemical and raving, which makes it useful and easy to share widely. I understand that it focuses on economic issues, which might even change the minds of those who think anti-EU sentiment is confined to xenophobics. The production standards are very high, too.

I wonder if it will get any publicity in the mainstream press.

May 12th, 2016 | 39 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Economics, Business & Globalization · European Union

There are many, many reasons why the UK economy remains skittish and the global recovery extremely patchy – and almost all of them predate not only this referendum campaign but even the announcement the UK electorate was to be given its first say on our relationship with Europe since the mid-1970s. Yet, while real investors fret about the prospect of another sub-prime style meltdown, a lack of genuine banking reform, the implosion of the eurozone, the lunacy that is negative nominal interest rates and now, we’re told, “helicopter money” – a kind of quantitative easing on steroids – it suits a wide variety of political and financial interests to blame every blip in the British and broader European economy on “the prospect of Brexit”.

– Liam Halligan

May 9th, 2016 | 15 comments - (Comments are closed)

A Poem of Two Chancellors

· European affairs · European Union · German affairs · Historical views · Sui generis

Regular commenter Niall Kilmartin started writing this poem as part of the Erdogan poetry competition but found his thoughts turning in a different direction:

              A Poem of Two Chancellors

   Though Erdogan is just the man to merit mocking poetry,
   Another leader claims my pen, a graver cause is troubling me:
   I write of Merkel’s acts because they do not cause me levity.
   Oh Angela, was Adolf’s genocidal dream once also thine?
   I doubt it, yet it’s you, not he, who makes your country Judenrein
   (And these days PC tells the Jews it’s hate speech if they dare to whine).

   ”The best man for the job? Why, choose a woman!” – that’s a bitter joke
   When calling doubters ‘Nazis’ is the means by which you meanly cloak
   What kind of ‘refugees’ are brought by all this ‘kindness’ you invoke.
   We know they’re really migrants since we see they mostly are young men.
   We know young men commit most crimes in any group – it follows, then,
   That their rate (high enough at home) must here be multiplied again.

   Think you, if most of them don’t kill, it will not be like World War Two?
   (When, as you know, most Germans did not personally kill a Jew;
   When most are scared or hate-filled, acts of killing only need a few.)
   Now each one missed by Hitler will be hissed or spoken of likewise
   By migrants who care not if they are heard by one, percentage-wise
   from that subgroup who won’t just talk but will make sure that that Jew dies.

   At least I can be glad most Jews you rule can flee abroad (absurd
   that they’ll be refugees for real – and so will be by you ignored).
   A few new graves, attracting vandals hypocritically deplored,
   Alone will then commemorate them, those canaries in the mine.
   Oh Angela, was Adolf’s genocidal dream once also thine?
   I doubt it, yet it’s you, not he, who makes your country Judenrein.

These two lines made the poem for me:

A few new graves, attracting vandals hypocritically deplored,
Alone will then commemorate them, those canaries in the mine.

Over-fearful? I would be glad to think so. I usually do think so. But the quickest of internet searches throws up recent news stories like this one from Spiegel Online International, “Skepticism of German-Israeli Friendship Growing in Berlin”, and this one from Deutsche Welle (DW), “Immigrants Beyond the Law”. The latter story says that migrants from warzones such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are not particularly criminal but says, ‘It is a completely different story with immigrants from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia though. “Activity quotas” for North Africans are no less than 40 percent.’ Wow. You would never guess from the strapline and first few paragraphs of the DW story that it contained such a statistic as that. Such evasion is typical and does much to increase mistrust.

May 4th, 2016 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)

A good pro-EU argument?

· European affairs · European Union

I am at Brian Micklethwait’s place for his latest Friday. This argument against leaving the EU was made (I am literally live blogging, this is breaking news!): The good thing about Brussels is that it is impossible to be emotionally attached to it. This weakens the state.

Interesting discussion is now ensuing. And we have not even got to the speaker yet.

April 29th, 2016 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)

Hardly a surprising conclusion, but surprising to see pro-EU Reuters run this…

· Economics, Business & Globalization · European Union · UK affairs

I find this self-evident:

Patrick Minford, a professor of economics at Cardiff University, said Britain should rely on tariff levels agreed at the World Trade Organisation, and that scrapping the EU’s external tariffs would lower consumer prices by 8 percent, and boost gross domestic product by 4 percent after around 10 years.

The benefits of bilateral trade deals were overrated and a lot of foreign investment was drawn to Britain by its underlying competitive strengths rather than its access to the rest of the EU, Minford said at a news conference in London organised by economists who support a so-called Brexit.

“There is no need for us to go off chasing a million trade deals with the rest of the world. They are irrelevant,” he said.

But given the flood of pro-EU scare stories that Reuters tends to run, I was a bit surprised to see it get some pixels there.

April 28th, 2016 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· European Union · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

The referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU has thrown many things into sharp relief. It has made more visible the fraying of the Tory Party that has been brewing for a few decades now. It has demonstrated that the politics of fear is everywhere, being peddled by both the Leave and Stay campaigns, and even being openly celebrated by one pro-EU columnist on the basis that ‘fear alone has a purity you can trust’. But most strikingly, the referendum campaign has confirmed the death, or at least utter exhaustion, of a left that believes in democracy, in change, in people. In throwing its weight behind the Stay campaign, having historically been suspicious of the EU, the left has completed its journey from demanding democracy to supporting technocracy.

– Brendan O’Neill

April 20th, 2016 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)

Thanks, Recep old boy. Cheque’s in the post. Yours, Boris.

· Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · European affairs · European Union · German affairs · Immigration · UK affairs

The Telegraph reports,

Turkey demands Germany prosecute comedian for Erdogan insult

Angela Merkel is facing a political dilemma after Turkey demanded one of Germany’s most popular comedians face prosecution for insulting its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The row could jeopardise the EU’s controversial migrant deal with Turkey.

The German government confirmed on Monday it had received a “formal request” from Turkey over the weekend indicating it wishes to press charges in the case.

If Mrs Merkel agrees to allow the prosecution, she will face accusations of limiting free speech to placate the authoritarian Mr Erdogan.

But if she refuses it could put the migrant deal with Turkey, which she personally brokered, at risk.

Jan Böhmermann, one of Germany’s most successful young comedians, faces up to five years in prison over a poem in which he referred to Mr Erdogan as a “goat-f*****” and described him as watching child pornography.

Insulting a foreign head of state is illegal under German law, but a prosecution can only take place if a foreign government requests it.

Any prosecution also requires the express authorisation of the German government — leaving Mrs Merkel in a difficult position.

April 12th, 2016 | 24 comments - (Comments are closed)

Anti-Brexit howler of the day

· European Union · Sports

Oh, and today’s Brexit scare story appears to be pro football. Our clubs will be stymied if they can’t employ lots of Belgians. Don’t look at the fact that they do Employ lots of Africans who, AFAIK, aren’t EU citizens.

– Kevin B.

March 31st, 2016 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· European Union · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

It is manifestly clear that the idea that the EU equals security and Brexit equals isolation (splendid or otherwise) for Britain is complete bunkum. It should be perfectly possible for the major players to cooperate against ISIS as national governments, within or outwith the European Union, and to work together closely, without the need for an ever-expanding and self-serving EU superstructure.

– Iain Martin

March 27th, 2016 | 26 comments - (Comments are closed)

A reminder: opposing the EU does not have to be about immigrants

· Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · European Union · Media & Journalism

Tyrannical EU threatens our liberal laws

“If Britain is at little risk of such tragic convulsions, it’s exposed to the EU’s progressive authoritarianism in more surreptitious ways. The jurist Sir William Blackstone articulated the presumption of innocence, a cornerstone of British justice: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” The Napoleonic code that influenced much of continental Europe, and the EU, lacks that respect for individual liberty.

Take the European arrest warrant (EAW). Innocent British citizens have been subjected to Kafkaesque justice systems by a fast-track process that sidesteps basic safeguards. In 2014, Keith Hainsworth, an Ancient Greek tutor sightseeing in Greece, was wrongly accused of setting a forest ablaze. Arrested without a shred of evidence, a five-week nightmare saw him holed up in a notorious Athens jail. A Greek judge eventually released him, admitting a simple error that could have been cleared up with one phone call. The Hainsworths were left with legal bills approaching £40,000.”

– From a piece by Dominic Raab in the Sunday Times.

Update: There is an oddity in this morning’s edition of the Times. Under the heading “Understanding European Capital Markets”, which seems to be a series title, there is a little article that starts as follows,

What is the European Commission doing to improve the access to financing for start-ups and SMEs?

David Muxworthy is adamant that without the EU’s financial assistance, he would have been forced to give up more of the equity in his company to private investors. He is the chief financial officer of MyPinPad, a state-of-the-art technology company that specialises in authentication solutions for devices like mobiles and tablets.

According to this year’s European Parliament annual report, there are around 22 million SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) like Muxworthy’s operating in the EU, providing two thirds of private sector employment – around 75 million jobs. The International Monetary Fund describes these sorts of businesses – agile, innovative, entrepreneurial, job-creating and growing – as the “backbone” of the European economy. The EU is well aware of SMEs’ importance and has set up a series of financial organisations to help them fulfil their potential. Localisation is a key consideration, and focus is often given to geographical economic “clusters”.

Something in the tone struck me as a little off. The typeface was just very slightly different, too. Then I saw the discreetly placed logo at the top right corner. “In association with Goldman Sachs.” Ah.

March 21st, 2016 | 14 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· European affairs · European Union

“One could hold pan-European elections, of course, with voters picking multi-national slates of candidates; but, then, one could also ask every person on the planet to vote for a world president. Such initiatives would ape democratic procedures, but would be a sham. They would be Orwellian takedowns of genuine democracy, not extensions of it. There would be no relationship or understanding between ruler and citizen, zero genuine popular control, nil real accountability; coalitions of big countries would impose their will on smaller nations, and elites would run riot. We would be back to imperial politics, albeit in a modernised form.”

– Allister Heath

March 10th, 2016 | 43 comments - (Comments are closed)
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