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Now that the French have voted against the constitution, what will be the future of it?
Adrian Baker said:Yes Yes Yes! What a pile of S***e that constitution was. The EU is undemocratic, ruled by an unelected elite and is living in a socialist 1950/60s kind of world. It sucked.
PerennialII said:... at least the EU eliminates some of the petty bickering and tries to give us a direction for solving our problems.
skeptic said:I think that the UK should vote to become an American state. Parts of the UK are probably closer to Washington ('spiritually' as well as geographically) than are parts of the US, the UK has long been the USA's aircraft carrier off the shores of Europe, and its politicians have long been the US president's lap-dogs. The UK could dump its royalty at the same time; without the risk of Blair becoming UK president. Most of all, it is only right that a young vigorous country should take its ailing parents in.
Art said:Europeans have a long history of warring with their neighbours and so the EU is simply a forum for 'war by other means'. To that end it has been successful in so much as the member states have stopped shooting at each other settling instead for diplomatic squabbling. The EU project began as a trade agreement and that is as far as european integration should go. The idea of a united federal europe is nonsensical driven only by the egos of a couple of French and German politicians attempting 'conquest by other means'. Given the huge cultural and linguistic differences between the member states it will never happen.
vanesch said:It also would have given the EU finally a united voice to the rest of the world.
http://federaljobs.net/ 2.7 million, or about 2%. I'm not sure if that includes the military, but I suspect it does not (probably another 2%).Pengwuino said:Wow 20% for the government? Whats the stat in the US?
Monique said:More than 50% of the people voted, they've counted part of the votes and as of now 63% of the Dutch have voted against the European constitution. I think the politicians are in trouble :S
Clausius2 said:Now we have the constitution which France and Germany really wants, and now it comes to demonstrate that governors and population interests are faraway each other. What the hell wanted France if not this current constitution? They were not happy with Nice because Spain and Polland had a greater power than now, but they are not happy too with this constitution. What do they want? A coffee??
Monique said:More than 50% of the people voted, they've counted part of the votes and as of now 63% of the Dutch have voted against the European constitution. I think the politicians are in trouble :S
russ_watters said:It would be truly a quinticential irony if the EU came together in an effort to counter American economic strength only to fail due to choosing socialism.
danAlwyn said:I'm not sure about this. The mechnisms to force the European nations to come to one consensus both speedily and without undue negotiation are at best ill-defined. There doesn't seem to be any enforcement clause either-or any central diplomatic office that supercedes the national diplomatic offices (for instance, there will be no EU ambassador to the US with the authority to dismiss the German or French ambassadors for making inappropriate diplomatic gestures). Europe normally agrees anyway, but if the nations of Europe ever disagree, there's no way I can see to keep that voice united.
It was part of a poll in the newspaper yesterday, but I can't find it anymore. There were three main arguments: 1) the Netherlands will lose its identity, 2) the Netherlands is paying too much for the EU, 3) the Dutch will lose their jobs to foreigners.vanesch said:What were the main arguments to vote against it in the Netherlands ? Were they similar as in France or totally different ?
vanesch said:…BTW, I do not think that this constitution …Such decisions shouldn't be made by peasants and lowly educated workers who are just swallowing whatever nonsense others told them.
cheers,
Patrick.
vanesch said:Well, it happened in the past, for several hunderd years under the Roman Empire!
cheers,
Patrick.