File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2003/anarchy-list.0302, message 399


From: "Dave Coull" <coull2-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: RE: New EU wannabees split with France?
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 22:13:03 -0000


Erik wrote


> Most of the east european countries only stand by the u$a 
> because of promised dollars. 


It's a mixture of the carrot and the stick. The promise of dollars
and the fear of a big bad bear. Russia used to be the big bad bear,
now it's the USA. 


> Same with Turkey. Now that the turkish government realises 
> that those dollars don't come  (they were after all promises) 
> they'll start to pay more attention to their 90% of the population 
> against a war with Irak. So the Bush administration came up 
> with another goodie: Turkey could have his way with northern 
> Irak. Woops, bad luck for the Kurds. 


The Kurds of northern Iraq have been fighting against Saddam
Hussein for a very long time. The last thing they want is
the USA encouraging their old enemies Turkey to cross into
their territory. 


> The UK never was part of Europe (not in their minds at least


I think things are gradually changing. Also, I think it is true 
to say that opinion in Scotland is a bit more pro-European than
in England. 


> still angry that they are not the big world player anymore 
> so by licking the u$a's ass they are going for the cheapest 
> surrogate)


That is certainly true of Blair and co. 


> There is not much choice for Europe if they want to be a player 
> in the world: work together. And i think that would be easiest 
> with the UK. So for the people living in th UK : don't you think 
> it's time to get either rid of Blair


A lot of people would like to, but they still believe in the myth
of democratic government. And the Conservative Party under Iain
Duncan-Smith are worse than useless. So in practice any challenge
to Tony Blair is likely to come from within his own party. 
Of course Gordon Brown still thinks  _he_  should be Prime
Minister, but he also knows that the one who first openly
challenges the boss isn't usually the one who ends up 
as the new boss. There is a lot of plotting going on inside 
the Labour Party. In Scotland, there is a general election 
to the Scottish Parliament in ten weeks time. Susan Deacon,
who was sacked as a minister in the Scottish Government some
time ago, has just put forward a strongly-worded anti-war
motion forward to the Parliament. Seven other Labour members
of the Scottish Parliament are backing her, plus of course
the SNP and so on. She obviously thinks the Labour Party 
is likely to lose the election in Scotland, and is positioning
herself to take over as leader of Labour in the Scottish
Parliament after the present boss, Jack McConnell, 
has to quit. If that happens, then Tony Blair will 
definitely be the next to go. However, all of this
is of little comfort to the folk who are likely 
to die in an extremely unpopular war in the meantime.
No doubt some people will be thinking about short cuts.


> or start moving that island some 4000 kms west


Personally, what I would like to do is saw the more
northerly bit of the island off at the Scottish border,
and then move it in a more-or-less south-westerly 
direction while leaving England where it is. Scotland 
becoming a Carribean island sounds a good idea to me. 
But this is purely a matter of preferring the climate
there, and not a sign of anti-European sentiment.


> As for the question what i think about Bush :  
> he should be put out of our misery.


And so say all of us. Along with his pal Blair. 
But you and I are both family men, Erik, so
this is just a dream. For us, it is, at least.
But there might be some crazy loner out there.


Dave Coull



   

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