Trust is good, Control is better

May a commentator bemoans the fact that now it is more and more difficult for the citizens to trust politicians. I would say that this is a good thing. Politics should not be based on what 'trusted' politicians decide on the citizen's behalf. Politics should just implement the will of the majority - subject to the constraints inscribed in a constitution.

Parties own seats in Parliament

A particularly nasty and unpleasant aspect of party rule in several European 'democracies' is the fact that the party establishment can replace any MP that resigns (or dies) with another party member of its choice. The citizens of the constituency the previous MP represented have no say in this. This is in addition to the problem caused by the fact that any prospective candidate for election to the parliament has to be approved by the party bureaucracy as no country holds mandatory primaries and very few parties give the ultimate say on candidate selections to their rank-and-file members.

European Elections - plus ça change

Anyone expecting a major change as a result of this weekend's elections to the European Parliament will be sorely disappointed. As the governance of the EU institutions remains untouched the change of personnel will do little to allow the citizens of the EU to assert more control over decisions taken on their behalf by an entrenched bureaucracy and party system.

US blackmails banks - EU useless

The US 'authorities' (if you can name them as such as the country becomes more and more ruled by out-of-control lobbies and zealots) prepare another drive-by shooting aimed at a foreign bank. This time it is the turn of French BNP-Paribas. The 'crime' was that the bank supposedly conducted business with a peaceful country as that is the only way one can describe Iran. Or can anyone point to an occasion where the country has been the aggressor and not the victim (do I need to mention BP, or Mossadegh?). So it is with growing anger that one watches the spectacle of a useless Eurocracy that drowns Europe in more and more intrusive and expensive regulation but is afraid (incapable? lazy?) to put a serious warning shot in the direction of the United States demanding that the extra-territorial reach of its 'laws' be stopped immediately. Europe - or at least its citizens - have no quarrel with Iran and do no longer want to support unaccountable lobbies and the policies they have imposed on the US government.