(Money) Quote of the day

Posted by Guessedworker on Thursday, 16 December 2004 22:20.

“There is a basic code from Finland to Portugal. Turkey has a different history. But this is not the largest obstacle. How much would it cost?”

Edward Stoiber, Bavarian Prime Minister and CDU leader, speaking of the 407 to 262 vote by the European Parliament to open EU entry talks with Turkey.

Turkey has won the sympathy vote. It has won the geopolitical vote. It has won the moral vote. But cost conquers all.

Update, 18th Dec

Another summit, another deal. The Telegraph reports an EU diplomat lauding Mr Blair as the saviour of the summit, with the Dutch who hold the EU presidency. “Blair played a phenomenal role … drafting the compromise text, saving the Turks from themselves.”

Blair himself said, “It is an immensely significant day for Europe. It shows that those who believe that there is some fundamental clash of civilisations between Christians and Muslims are actually wrong, that we can work together, that we can co-operate together.

“We are stating as a fundamental principle that the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country does not mean it should be barred from the European Union. On the contrary, if it fulfils the same principles of democracy and human rights, then Muslim and Christian can work together. That is a very, very important signal right across the world.”

Because he is such a lightweight and so given to headline angst, Blair’s spoken word is often disgarded. But when a man speaks of immense significance, fundamental principle, the primacy of democracy and human rights and highly significant signals for the world it behoves us to consider what he means and why.

He is, of course, not a democrat. His human rights agenda overides if not actually runs against the will of his own native peoples. He is a straightforward transnational progressive, to use John Fonte’s famous phrase. That is why he gravitates towards the international stage - and does so not on the basis of British national interest but for human rights.

For human rights in the Levant and the Middle-East we will open our borders and, by implication, our national citizenship to seventy million Turks and all those who will use Turkey as a gateway to the West. For Blair the Sixties Child, the egalitarian internationalist, the disbeliever in the right of Europeans to their homelands, this is not a price to pay. This is a golden opportunity for peace and equality.

Here one returns to the essential lightness of being which informs his judgements. You cannot bring such a man to a feeling for nation and home. He lacks the requisite psychological data. All is to be One. Socially Happy. Politically at rest. Culturally Free.

There is still Herr Stoiber, of course. And votes in France and, critically perhaps, Austria. Not, of course, in Britain.

Tags: European Union

Comments:

Posted by Pericles on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:48 | #

So, another good reason to leave the PC European Union.

Pericles

Posted by Guessedworker on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:11 | #

Indeed, Pericles. I’ve added some links to the post to illustrate a little more where the battle lines will be drawn.

Many moons ago I was imprisoned thrice weekly and wholly against my will in a dusty school classroom to listen to the dry, utterly uninspiring voice of my history teacher. I well remember him droning on about nineteenth century popular protests of “No Turkey in Europe”. And here we are again.

This time the issue will come down, in the end, to who pays. If the Germans won’t shoulder their share then that’s it. Sorry Abdullah. Look north or east.

Posted by Braveheart on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:52 | #

Who still wonders where the ruins of the Christian churches come from in the neighbourhood of Ankara?

Posted by Fred Scrooby on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:59 | #

“This time the issue will come down, in the end, to who pays.” (—Guessedworker, today, 1:11 PM)

Dienekes cites an article which gives the impression the major European countries don’t want Turkey admitted but are too craven to say it, so are hoping to hide behind Cyprus whose leader has no such pathetic, contemptible, hypocritical compunctions. Go here.

Of course Turkey shouldn’t be admitted, and the reason isn’t any financial burden its admission might cause but the fact that it is not racially, culturally, or religiously a European country. Everything else is blah-blah-blah mouthed by people on the intellectual and moral level of Denny Hastert. (And yes, for any leftists who might be reading this, you’re not seeing things, and no need to gag on your coffee, poor dears—I did say “racially”. So sorry to spoil your day. Any questions?)

Posted by Guessedworker on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:28 | #

No questions at all, Fred. “No Turkey in Europe” is plainly the unchanging attitude among Western populations. My point, though, is that the moral declension of our elites and their disassociation from the peoples they govern has put matters beyond the obvious racial and cultural priorities. The EU is a machine for global political interplay by the European political elite. What do they care about the 19th century Vox Populis prejudices of you or me?

The Cyprus problem is interesting. But it’s a local difficulty on which Turkey must reflect, then shift. The moolah, however, is another consideration entirely. Transfering wealth eastward through agricultural subsidy, for example, in the manner it was transferred south (chiefly as industrial and infrastructural investment) at the ascession of Spain, Portugal and Greece is NOT acceptable in Germany - a busted flush economically yet the supposed driver of European prosperity.

In the absence of 19th century Western racio-cultural certainty among the elite cost is the last line of defence. And thank heavens for it.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 18:31 | #

Dear Guessedworker, I agree with all your comments in this log entry and thread. In saying what I did about the European Denny Hasterts I wasn’t thinking of anything you said but of what I see as the underlying issue of primary importance given the E.U.‘s internal borderless characteristic and some other aspects of its anticipated final structure (you were referring to the political/economic realities and you were right, of course; I was referring to certain underlying principles which I know many of the friends of this web-site understand).

Posted by Gooble, gooble on Fri, 17 Dec 2004 23:31 | #

That’s quite enough naysaying about the divide between West and East: today’s events have made it clear that Europe is a great deal like Turkey - like a turkey celebrating Christmas.