Euro Hustings

The first European hustings in Birmingham was held at the Council House last night attended by very few so the fact none of the six Socialist Labour Party candidates were not invited to the platform didn’t count for much. The three main parties were there of course together with the Green Party, UKIP and no2EU. The most unappealing were the Tories, New Labour and the Lib-Dems. Liz Lynne opined that she hope that the expenses question would not enter the debate. You bet she would, the fact is all three parties could only offer more of the same.
The meeting was jointly organised by the Jubilee Debt Campaign and Friends of the Earth. Certainly the Green Party and UKIP made some telling points, the Green Candidate openly admitting that she agree with Dave Nellist, the one socialist speaker. The UKIP candidate spoke of the effects that EU fishing policy was having on some African countries as I have discussed before on this site. UKIP, Dave Nellist and the SLP are all for withdrawal from Europe (as of course are the non visible BNP). Long ago I campaigned against “Fortress Europe” in advance of the 1992 Treaty which opened internal borders (apart from Britain and Ireland, that is) and closed them externally. As a result hundreds of thousands have died trying to flee starvation and persecution. Stop the Debt says it wishes to cancel the debts of impoverished states outside of the EU but it isn’t clear whether they still think that the existing order characterised by greed and self-help can reform itself. The view I expressed was that the solution was akin to the fox in the chicken house which is what happened after 1929 and is what is now taking place.
An article in this morning’s Independent is headed “We’re at a turning point. The future must be fairer”

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