Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- More on that Madrid regression.
- A report that is more than a little hard to believe
- The Local on July events not to miss.
- The arbitrariness of zealous traffic cops is about to get worse. How long before scratching an ear or picking your nose will result in a fine for 'distracting' yourself, as proven by a foto from a helicopter?
- Predictably outrageous comments from the papal nuncio on the Franco bones saga.
- The prospect of a deeply divided and weakened EU unable to deal with Brexit forced Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macon into a climbdown over the top Brussels jobs. The French and German leaders backed off from imposing their preferred candidate, Frans Timmermans, 58, a Dutch socialist, as the next president of the European Commission because of fears that it would leave the EU too divided to face the British prime minister this autumn. European leaders will today try to reach a deal over the EU’s most powerful jobs amid growing fears that the bloc is facing a fresh period of existential divisions and paralysis.
- President Macron is reported to be furious that the plan that he and Mrs Merkel had agreed on has been blocked by Italy, Poland, Hungary and Romania. He has described the EU as “profoundly tainted”. Presumably by people who don't agree with him.
- Italy: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The ECB, the commission and the Bank of Italy all need to explain clearly to investors, the public, global regulators and the rest of the international banking community exactly how the rescue was engineered. Otherwise, the vision of the ECB as a financial supervisor immune from national interests and political meddling, one with the ability to end decades of mismanagement at some of Europe’s lenders, will remain in doubt. More on this here.
- Says a Brit Leaver: In the race to replace Juncker, the EU's sleight of hand reminds us why we voted Leave. . . The EU is a sham democracy. That’s the real reason Britain voted to leave, and the row over the next President of the EU Commission suggests that we’re getting out just in time. . . . We all want to trade with the Europeans, to move back and forth as freely as possible, to learn one another’s languages, indulge in each other’s cultures and to maintain a virtuous peace. But it’s a peculiarly continental obsession to think these things must require a government to do them – especially a government of smoke and mirrors. It’s this essential difference in political culture that makes them European and us British. Both Remainers and Leavers might 'enjoy' the full article below.
- If you’ve been living on the moon and haven’t heard, there’s a distinct feeling that Instagram might just be ruining travel. There have been an incredible 1.2million posts using #NottingHill, spurred on by a number of Instagram guides to the area. The problem has become so bad that some residents are considering moving or are deliberately making the exteriors of their homes look uglier in order to deter snap-seeking visitors.
- If you've seen Fart answering questions on busing and Western liberalism, you'll know why this question has been posed, if you didn't already:- How on earth did we end up with someone this utterly ignorant of practically everything as president? It’s deeply disturbing how much this country has descended into one that could elect such a mindless, oblivious dolt as our leader.
- Here's a poll that would, as they say, be hilarious if it weren't so serious. Leaving one not sure whether to laugh or cry. Dog-whistle politics at their worst. At least until the next chapter.
- Word of the Day: Pulular
- Well, the sun did come out yesterday and is out in all its splendour this morning, in line with the forecast of 30 degrees for today. Three to five degrees higher than Galicians are happy with.
In the race to replace Juncker, the EU's sleight of hand reminds us why we voted Leave: Tim Stanley, the Daily Telegraph.
The resistance to the appointment of Manfred Weber as President of the Commission, proves the EU is quite happy to suspend its own rules when convenient
The outcry over Manfred Weber exposes a serious flaw in the project’s organising principle
The Remainers say “we didn’t know what we were voting for!” and, fair enough, lots of Brexiteers didn’t. But neither did Remainers. Back in 2016, they couldn’t say who their MEPs were or what the EU Council is or name any of the commissioners – and that’s a problem because democracy only works when you understand how it works and who is working it. The EU is a sham democracy. That’s the real reason Britain voted to leave, and the row over the next President of the EU Commission suggests that we’re getting out just in time.
Brexiteers are accused of being obsessed with the Second World War, but the Europeans live very much in the shadow of Hitler and the terror of a return to fascism. The EU was constructed by men who were frightened of their own voters, so they cooked up a structure in which democracy is checked by a self-selecting, bureaucratic elite – a bit like the philosopher kings in Plato’s Republic or the clerics in Iran.
The democratic element of the EU is the European Parliament, which is elected by you and me and reviews and amends legislation. But legislation is actually drafted by the EU Commission, which also oversees national budgets, enforces treaties and negotiates trade deals. Who runs the Commission? Well, that’s decided by the European Council, which is made up of the heads of the 28 EU member states: they pick names for the top jobs and only then does the European Parliament approve them. Don’t worry if you’re having difficulty following all of this, you’re meant to. In Europe, power is divided on purpose; no one’s quite sure who is charge; change is slow. The ship of state sails on.
In 2014, however, the Parliament embarked on a dangerous innovation: it insisted that whoever the Council nominates for President of the EU Commission ought to be drawn from the group with the most seats in Parliament. After this year’s elections, that was the European People’s Party, and that meant the Council should have nominated a German conservative called Manfred Weber.
But Weber is inexperienced; he has been too nice to the right-wing Hungarians, and both the socialists and the liberals on the Council don’t like him. If the Council had accepted this unacceptable candidate, it would have been seen as a victory for the Parliament and power would have shifted in its favour. Weber was vetoed, and the summit to fill the job has turned out to be the longest in modern history.
The crisis is expected to be resolved today in one of those quiet compromises the EU is capable of pulling off when it wants to. But doing so exposes a serious flaw in the project’s organising principle. The EU cannot allow too much democracy because it’s trying to keep 28 countries across an entire continent happy, and the moment you allow one group in Parliament to dominate the agenda, you’ll alienate the other factions and perhaps whole nations, and European unity will collapse.
The EU isn’t boring and faceless by accident – it’s to avoid exactly this kind of conflict – but the show can’t go on for much longer. Europe is growing up and growing apart. The east is broadly authoritarian, the west is liberal; some want more integration and others want less; the future is more radical and democratic. It was the liberals, nationalists and greens who did best in the last elections, leaving no-one with a majority and making it harder to strike a balance behind closed doors, and the time will come when these upstarts demand a Commission that reflects their competing values; the Council will resist and all Hell will break loose. Brexit Britain might then be regarded not as reckless for leaving but prophetic and sensible.
These are the kind of Eurosceptic arguments you used to hear a lot – before Theresa May took control of Brexit and, somehow, it became all about trade and immigration. Maybe that’s because the latter are real world issues that demand practical answers, whereas “sovereignty” is dismissed as an academic concept.
But “who governs?” is actually the most important question of all (literally everything flows from it) and if you can’t answer it easily then there’s something wrong with your system of government. Ergo, I have no idea what on Earth the people who fly EU flags outside the UK Parliament think they are fighting for. The authority of the EU Parliament, the Commission or the Council? In the event of a war between the EU and, say, Russia, which Commissioner would they follow into battle? What EU Directive would be on their lips?
It’s more likely that what they want to preserve isn’t the reality of Europe’s power structures but an idea of Europe that most Brexiteers share. We all want to trade with the Europeans, to move back and forth as freely as possible, to learn one another’s languages, indulge in each other’s cultures and to maintain a virtuous peace. But it’s a peculiarly continental obsession to think these things must require a government to do them – especially a government of smoke and mirrors. It’s this essential difference in political culture that makes them European and us British.
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