Comments on: Opinion: Hannan Lifts Channel Fog – but there’s much more to be done http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-hannan-lifts-channel-fog-but-theres-much-more-to-be-done-13015.html Our place to talk - an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:46:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: john http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-hannan-lifts-channel-fog-but-theres-much-more-to-be-done-13015.html#comment-87893 john Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:19:31 +0000 http://www.libdemvoice.org/?p=13015#comment-87893 I watched the hannan video since the tory blogs were so excited by it, and saw a fairly wordy pre-prepared piece of third rate oratory that most public schoolboys could have managed to deliver. my honest reaction was 'is that it?' a society does get the politicians it deserves, but heaven help us if hannan really is the UK's obama. I watched the hannan video since the tory blogs were so excited by it, and saw a fairly wordy pre-prepared piece of third rate oratory that most public schoolboys could have managed to deliver. my honest reaction was ‘is that it?’

a society does get the politicians it deserves, but heaven help us if hannan really is the UK’s obama.

]]> By: David Morton http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-hannan-lifts-channel-fog-but-theres-much-more-to-be-done-13015.html#comment-87859 David Morton Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:12:51 +0000 http://www.libdemvoice.org/?p=13015#comment-87859 An excellent article. I notice you repeat the old chestnut that 70% of legislation is decided at a federal level. All the pro Europe people I have heard tend to rebut this figure as alarmist and suggest it was drawn from an atypical year when the single market was being implimented. So which is true and how are you defining "legislation" and 70% of what ? Number of Bills ? lengths of bills ? over all impact assessment ? Your 5 suggestions are interesting. While it is a bit of a cliche i really don't think you can have european democracy without an european demos so i think direct election of the Commission president is out. If he/she is going to be elected by the parliament then perhaps best to argue for the whole hog ? That the commission comes from the parliament? But then you get into territory of how it is weighted politically or geographically. standards for news papers would be a nightmare to draft let alone enforce but a good aspiration. Single european sports teams would be a political nightmare. An EU team for the London Olympics ? we are still arguing over whether we can have a British Football team ! I'd add two suggestions to your list as 6 and 7. 6. MEP's could sit in a new Senate when it replaces the current House of Lords. As well as saving on 70 odd sets of allownaces it would link Europe to a new Federal Chamber for Britain. the new senate would have signifigant scrutiny powers over all things european. 7. that we create a secretary of state for Europe. he/she would attend as far as possible ALL Council of Ministers regardless of the subject. they would probably have to be based in brussels full time but so what ? A single face accountable to the public via direct election to parliament would help communications and scrutiny. 8. if 6 and 7 were both implimented you could experiment by drawing the new Sec of State from the pool of sitting MEP's if you wanted. An excellent article. I notice you repeat the old chestnut that 70% of legislation is decided at a federal level. All the pro Europe people I have heard tend to rebut this figure as alarmist and suggest it was drawn from an atypical year when the single market was being implimented. So which is true and how are you defining “legislation” and 70% of what ? Number of Bills ? lengths of bills ? over all impact assessment ?

Your 5 suggestions are interesting. While it is a bit of a cliche i really don’t think you can have european democracy without an european demos so i think direct election of the Commission president is out. If he/she is going to be elected by the parliament then perhaps best to argue for the whole hog ? That the commission comes from the parliament? But then you get into territory of how it is weighted politically or geographically. standards for news papers would be a nightmare to draft let alone enforce but a good aspiration. Single european sports teams would be a political nightmare. An EU team for the London Olympics ? we are still arguing over whether we can have a British Football team ! I’d add two suggestions to your list as 6 and 7.

6. MEP’s could sit in a new Senate when it replaces the current House of Lords. As well as saving on 70 odd sets of allownaces it would link Europe to a new Federal Chamber for Britain. the new senate would have signifigant scrutiny powers over all things european.

7. that we create a secretary of state for Europe. he/she would attend as far as possible ALL Council of Ministers regardless of the subject. they would probably have to be based in brussels full time but so what ? A single face accountable to the public via direct election to parliament would help communications and scrutiny.

8. if 6 and 7 were both implimented you could experiment by drawing the new Sec of State from the pool of sitting MEP’s if you wanted.

]]>