The modern day civil society that is.
So what will we get? Bankers talking to bankers and saying stakeholders want what bankers want.
I despair.
The EU / EC should:
a) Allocate seats to stakeholder groups
b) Fund them
c) Make clear they can issue minority reports if need be
d) Provide them with technical support.
There was a time when civil society meant what was done outside government. Now it seems to have morphed into what those with bees in their bonnet can get government to pay for. This is how we end up with Friends of the Earth Europe getting 50% of their funds from the European Union for advising the European Union.
And yes, that is our favourite retired accountant making a pitch for a cushy seat on an unaccountable tax funded quango.
You may have noticed that I\’ve got opinions on lots of things. I\’ve never quite had the effrontery though to demand that those who aren\’t interested in them pay for the privilege of being forced to listen to them.
Others seem less reticent.
Would a bit of 500-kiloton radiotherapy on Brussels, Luxemburg and Strassburg fix this problem, or has the cancer already metastasized?
Check out his other post that tries to make out that the National Association of Pension Funds thinks it would be a good idea if the UK lost its AAA rating. Which of course the NAPF doesn’t think. Murphy is now barring me from making comments on it…
Peter, don’t worry. He has barred lots of us. Go back, he will let you back on.
Today he was telling us that the state should fund everyone who wants a say on anything – as part of democracy. No chance of it being exploited and bankrupting the country. Noooo! See here. http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2010/02/08/the-eu-must-learn-chaps-wont-regulate-chaps/comment-page-1/#comment-563342
I have a theory about Ritchie.
I think it is an act. Sort of like Borat or Ali G, but unlike them, he stays permanently in character. And part of the fun is to see how far he can go to be taken seriously – how the BBC/Guardian etc will take it all in.
His stuff is just so ridiculous and his style so pompous and bombastic (and his dismissals of anyone he disagrees with so weak and off point) that he just has to be fake. Just has to be.
His usual dismissal is ‘stop wasting my time’. Huh? Look how quickly he responds to posts and how closely he micromanages the site. He is a little retired man with PLENTY of time.
If my theory is right, then it is all very very funny. Great stuff.
“Others seem less reticent.”
That is because they are right.
Not.
You’ve made a quote of the moment:
http://www.westbournemouthukip.com/main.htm