BBC News reports:
EU officials are expected to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a stronger line on the crisis in Syria during a summit in St Petersburg.It's bad enough when the likes of William Hague go swanning around, meddling in the affairs of other countries. But how much worse to have these little-known, unelected eurocrats dining at a lavish estate, purporting to speak for 500 million Europeans!
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European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are among those attending Monday's summit.
On Sunday, Mr Putin invited the EU leaders for dinner ahead of the talks at a lavish estate on the outskirts of the city.
Baroness Ashton, who met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before Sunday's dinner, said in a statement: "Russia's role is crucial for the success of Annan's plan."Who empowered Ashton to speak on our behalf? Who decided that foreign policy should be handled by the EU?
She said the EU wanted to "work closely with Russia to find a way to end the violence".
The British people were denied their say; our Queen signed our sovereignty away.
Posts by Daniel Hannan and Norman Tebbit celebrating the Jubilee have drawn many comments supporting the Queen. They say she has no choice but to sign whatever treaties 'her' government puts before her. At a practical level, this is clearly false - nobody is holding a gun to her head, and she could achieve a great deal by refusing to sign and forcing a referendum. But if, legally, she has no right to refuse, let's end the charade, and have the PM do the signing.
You are probably right about the charade. I live in Luxembourg, where the Grand Duke's signature used to be necessary for laws to be enacted. Came the day when, under the ægis of the EU, a law effectively allowing abortion on demand was placed before Grand Duke Henri. A devout Catholic, he refused to sign. After some political to-ing and fro-ing, the law was passed and the Grand Duke stripped of his power to block legislation. HM Queen Elizabeth would probably suffer the same fate.
ReplyDeleteA propos of nothing, Henri's father, Grand Duke Jean, served in the Irish Guards during WWII, and was for some time the regiment's Colonel-in-chief.