eurealist.co.uk

According to the Times this morning

THE leader of France’s ruling party has privately admitted that Sunday’s referendum on the European constitution will result in a “no” vote, throwing Europe into turmoil.
“The thing is lost,” Nicolas Sarkozy told French ministers during an ill-tempered meeting. “It will be a little ‘no’ or a big ‘no’,” he was quoted as telling Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whom he accused of leading a feeble campaign.
The mood of pessimism that descended on the French Government after ten successive polls showing the “no” camp leading was echoed by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President, who drafted the constitution. He blamed the failures of the “yes” campaign on the half-heartedness of France’s leaders.
“Our current leaders are of course believers in the idea of Europe but in their heart of hearts they are not men and women who are inspired by a European feeling,” he told a French newspaper.
President Chirac will go on television tonight to deliver a last-ditch appeal to his country to resist the temptation to vote “no” and trigger a crisis for the whole European Union.
But the President, who called the referendum in July last year but has done little campaigning, was reported to be pessimistic and telling visitors to the Elysée Palace that he expected a “no”.
M Sarkozy’s outburst came after M Raffarin, who is expected to lose his job in the event of a defeat, told ministers and the leadership of M Chirac’s UMP party that they should avoid defeatism but be prepared to limit the damage from the crisis from a “no”, party sources said.
After Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Health Minister, insisted that “we should trust the head of state”, M Sarkozy retorted: “Everything has to change — our way of doing politics . . . the labour law.” He said that the UMP would demand changes after the referendum and that “the Government had better follow the party”.

I always marvel at how people like Giscard d’Estaing who do not have to stand for election, will blame those that need the backing of the voters for the failure of their policies. Giscard himself has been campaigning so have the presidents of several other EU states, the EU itself, all the media are on side, yet it is the elected politicians who take the blame. Perhaps if the French do vote “no” Giscard should ask himself what it is about his document that is unacceptable to the French people who will have against all the odds voted against his idea of a United States of Europe.

Boris Johnson writing about the BBC in the Telegraph

“The corporation is a cultural and political anachronism, locked in a pre-1997 mindset. It is also, of course, rather wonderful. The reason that it is so immensely politically powerful is that its Leftist message is subconsciously legitimated by association with things that we love and cherish and make us proud to be British: the Archers, the Shipping Forecast, “Lillibulero”, Doctor Who, the Proms - the list is endless. How could anyone possibly attack such a thing? BBC political bias is like the arms dump once hidden in the Parthenon. You could blow it up, but it would be an act of cultural vandalism for which future generations might not forgive you.
So what is the alternative?

All I can say is that BBC hierarchs had better accept that one day, sooner rather than later, there will be a Tory government, and that they can no longer afford to treat the 8,100,000 people in England who voted Tory (as opposed to the 8,045,000 who voted Labour) as halfwits or nutcases, or to introduce any Tory spokesman or idea with their habitual smile of supercilious condescension.”

I await in hope that the Tories will take on board the leftist message coming from the BBC and realise that no matter how much they creep around these BBC types, they are never going to treat the Conservative party with any fairness, to realise that this situation is so ingrained in the BBC hierarchy that there is nothing to be done except to announce a clear policy to privatise when the Tories gain power again. As much as the sneerers at the BBC may dream, that day will come, and if it also presaged the end of this monolithic left, liberal, anti-American, anti-Israeli, pro-EU, organisation, the better for all of us.

Yesterday the EPP’s German leader, Hans-Gert Poettering, told parliament that British Conservative Roger Helmer was no longer a member of his grouping, a declaration that Poettering seems to have invented his own parliamentary rule to make. Later in a move that has been suggested was to save face for Poettering, who had also threatened four other conservatives Daniel Hannan, Chris Heaton-Harris, David Sumberg and Martin Callanan the Consevative whip was removed from Helmer.

Now as I understand it the Conservative Party who say they are against the Constitution were told to leave the EPP’s grouping by IDS when he was leader of the party, but this was reversed by Howard on the understanding that the conservatives would be able to vote for themselves and against the rest of the EPP’s grouping. Yet the five Conservatives who signed the motion to censure against Barroso after he refused to answer a parliamentary question about a holiday taken aboard the yacht of a Greek billionaire, and the following granting of Spiros Latsis company with several million pounds, have come under strong pressure from Timothy Kirkhope the leader of the Conservatives in the parliament demanding they remove their names from the motion of censure.

So much for the independence from the grouping, we were promised, so much for the veracity of the Conservatives policies on the EU.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg and holder of the rotating EU presidency, told Le Soir newspaper in Belgium that he would act swiftly on Sunday night if France voted No.

He would appear with the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and demand that all 25 EU nations complete the process of ratifying the constitution, in referendums or parliamentary votes.
But EU leaders appear to be focused on keeping the constitution alive after a possible French No so as to buy themselves more time for a political solution to the resulting crisis.

Mr Juncker said

it was essential for the EU leadership to show a united front on Sunday night, and “maintain order in the process that will unfold the morning after”.

If it’s a Yes, we will say ‘on we go’, and if it’s a No we will say ‘we continue‘, he said.

As Phillipe Esnol, Mayor, of Saint Germaine-en-Laye remarked recently

if the choice is between yes or yes why bother to hold a referendum in the first place?