The leader of the Conservative Euro MPs, Giles Chichester, has resigned over a serious error with his expenses.
The leader of our own Euro MPs resigned for making anti-Semitic comments. And then had the cheek to stand for re-election.
I suggest we keep very, very quiet about this story.
Showing posts with label Chris Davies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Davies. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Holocaust denial: what happened to European principles?
In a climbdown from its earlier plans, the EU has decided not to introduce a blanket ban on Holocaust denial. The new proposal, a compromise agreed between Ministers, makes it illegal to trivialise crimes of genocide, but only if it has the effect of inciting hatred or violence. It sounds rather like a waste of time, as you'd have thought inciting hatred or violence was illegal anyway, but even if it's superfluous, it's still a considerable improvement.
Chris Davies, Lib Dem Euro MP for the North West, responded with this superb little nugget:
There are stupid people everywhere but in a free society they should have the right to be stupid.
Yes, quite.
I do wonder, though: why on earth does this sort of thing require EU-wide legislation? Much as I disagree with banning Holocaust denial, I can understand why it's a matter for debate in places like Germany and Austria. The different EU member states have very different histories and responsibilities, so why isn't it up to national parliaments to decide what's right for each country? This certainly isn't an area where the EU should have competence.
Angela Merkel, at the start of Germany's EU Presidency, talked about the importance of reviving the European Constitution. One of the good things about that Constitution was the emphasis it put on the principle of subsidiarity - the idea that everything the EU does should be carried out on the lowest possible level. If the members states can get something done on their own, the EU should keep its nose out of it. This entire episode shows a shocking contempt towards that key principle of subsidiarity. European voters have already rejected the Constitution in its present form, and if even the Council of Ministers can walk all over it with disdain, they can hardly expect people to accept a revised version.
Chris Davies, Lib Dem Euro MP for the North West, responded with this superb little nugget:
There are stupid people everywhere but in a free society they should have the right to be stupid.
Yes, quite.
I do wonder, though: why on earth does this sort of thing require EU-wide legislation? Much as I disagree with banning Holocaust denial, I can understand why it's a matter for debate in places like Germany and Austria. The different EU member states have very different histories and responsibilities, so why isn't it up to national parliaments to decide what's right for each country? This certainly isn't an area where the EU should have competence.
Angela Merkel, at the start of Germany's EU Presidency, talked about the importance of reviving the European Constitution. One of the good things about that Constitution was the emphasis it put on the principle of subsidiarity - the idea that everything the EU does should be carried out on the lowest possible level. If the members states can get something done on their own, the EU should keep its nose out of it. This entire episode shows a shocking contempt towards that key principle of subsidiarity. European voters have already rejected the Constitution in its present form, and if even the Council of Ministers can walk all over it with disdain, they can hardly expect people to accept a revised version.
Monday, 29 January 2007
Israel and Northern Ireland: lessons to learn?
Three different Palestinian groups are claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing today, which killed three people in Eilat. It's the first suicide attack on Israeli soil for nine months.
This wasn’t the attack of an oppressed victim against a powerful occupier. It wasn’t an attack against the failed policies of Arafat or Sharon or Olmert, which have turned the progress of the late nineties into the total deadlock of the mid-noughties. It was an attack on a bakery in a seaside resort, an attack against three normal Israelis buying bread.
On the same day, in Northern Ireland, politicians across the communities are welcoming Sinn Féin’s decision to support policing, which is an important milestone in the peace process. The situation there is far brighter than it was in Manchester in 1996, when IRA terrorists detonated a bomb in the Arndale shopping centre. Nobody was killed, but as a 10-year-old boy, I was bewildered and panicked at being evacuated by police from the centre of my own hometown. That was the first and only time in my life that I’ve genuinely felt someone was trying to kill me. As a kid, I had no idea why it happened; as I got older, I learned about the troubled history of Ireland, and the confusing and unsettling role Britain had played in that story. I could start to see the legitimate grievances of the republican community in Northern Ireland, but had trouble understanding why I deserved to die for them.
Although the stories of Northern Ireland and the Palestinian Territories are very different, there are some useful and optimistic parallels. The developments in Northern Ireland over the past decade have shown that it’s possible to move forward from deep wounds and historic grievances. They’ve also taught us a more sombre lesson: if you want peace, you have to sacrifice principles to the greater good, even if it means working with people who have a bloody past – and that applies just as much to Hamas as it does to the IRA. In a rare moment of common sense on Israel/Palestine, Chris Davies MEP wrote that having been elected to power, Hamas needed to transform themselves from a paramilitary group into a mature political party, prepared to use diplomatic clout rather than explosives. (Press Release, 26 Jan 2006) Making peace is far harder than blowing up buses and rocketing hospitals, and I’m extremely sceptical – but there at least has to be a chance. If we don’t at least talk to Hamas and offer them the opportunity to engage, then that chance, however slim, goes down to zero.
At the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton last October, I was at the fringe meeting where Jenny Tonge said she would consider becoming a suicide bomber, if she were a Palestinian. After the talk, I had a rather heated discussion with another Lib Dem. “Is it such a terrible thing for Jenny to say?” he asked. “You have to understand how it must feel if you couldn’t travel freely within your own territory. If you couldn’t bring your crops to market, because they went rotten whilst you waited three days to cross the checkpoint. If you had to watch your family strip-searched and humiliated. What would you do if you were a Palestinian?”
I’ve thought long and hard about it, and I still don’t know the answer. There are some very obvious things the Palestinian Authority and Israel could both do, but as an individual Palestinian, it must feel humiliating and scary. I don't know what I would do in their situation. But I know for certain what I would not do. I would not strap explosives to myself, and walk into a bus, or a restaurant, or an Eilat bakery, and murder somebody else’s family, somebody else’s loved ones.
This multiple homicide in Eilat should be hateful to every right-thinking human being, and it’s another worrying sign for the gridlocked Middle East peace process. But if we can learn anything from the Northern Irish experience, it’s that our desire for quality of life can put an end to the violence. Any rational person would choose stability, peace, and a good quality of life over the fine detail of the settlement of a political grievance. The difficulty lies in making sure peace really is on offer – which is why, despite this setback, Israel must still consider a long-term truce with Hamas, backed up by international monitoring, even without a political solution. The final settlement is crucial, but both sides will find it hard to muster the political willpower for it, unless they are already enjoying the benefits of stability and peace.
This wasn’t the attack of an oppressed victim against a powerful occupier. It wasn’t an attack against the failed policies of Arafat or Sharon or Olmert, which have turned the progress of the late nineties into the total deadlock of the mid-noughties. It was an attack on a bakery in a seaside resort, an attack against three normal Israelis buying bread.
On the same day, in Northern Ireland, politicians across the communities are welcoming Sinn Féin’s decision to support policing, which is an important milestone in the peace process. The situation there is far brighter than it was in Manchester in 1996, when IRA terrorists detonated a bomb in the Arndale shopping centre. Nobody was killed, but as a 10-year-old boy, I was bewildered and panicked at being evacuated by police from the centre of my own hometown. That was the first and only time in my life that I’ve genuinely felt someone was trying to kill me. As a kid, I had no idea why it happened; as I got older, I learned about the troubled history of Ireland, and the confusing and unsettling role Britain had played in that story. I could start to see the legitimate grievances of the republican community in Northern Ireland, but had trouble understanding why I deserved to die for them.
Although the stories of Northern Ireland and the Palestinian Territories are very different, there are some useful and optimistic parallels. The developments in Northern Ireland over the past decade have shown that it’s possible to move forward from deep wounds and historic grievances. They’ve also taught us a more sombre lesson: if you want peace, you have to sacrifice principles to the greater good, even if it means working with people who have a bloody past – and that applies just as much to Hamas as it does to the IRA. In a rare moment of common sense on Israel/Palestine, Chris Davies MEP wrote that having been elected to power, Hamas needed to transform themselves from a paramilitary group into a mature political party, prepared to use diplomatic clout rather than explosives. (Press Release, 26 Jan 2006) Making peace is far harder than blowing up buses and rocketing hospitals, and I’m extremely sceptical – but there at least has to be a chance. If we don’t at least talk to Hamas and offer them the opportunity to engage, then that chance, however slim, goes down to zero.
At the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton last October, I was at the fringe meeting where Jenny Tonge said she would consider becoming a suicide bomber, if she were a Palestinian. After the talk, I had a rather heated discussion with another Lib Dem. “Is it such a terrible thing for Jenny to say?” he asked. “You have to understand how it must feel if you couldn’t travel freely within your own territory. If you couldn’t bring your crops to market, because they went rotten whilst you waited three days to cross the checkpoint. If you had to watch your family strip-searched and humiliated. What would you do if you were a Palestinian?”
I’ve thought long and hard about it, and I still don’t know the answer. There are some very obvious things the Palestinian Authority and Israel could both do, but as an individual Palestinian, it must feel humiliating and scary. I don't know what I would do in their situation. But I know for certain what I would not do. I would not strap explosives to myself, and walk into a bus, or a restaurant, or an Eilat bakery, and murder somebody else’s family, somebody else’s loved ones.
This multiple homicide in Eilat should be hateful to every right-thinking human being, and it’s another worrying sign for the gridlocked Middle East peace process. But if we can learn anything from the Northern Irish experience, it’s that our desire for quality of life can put an end to the violence. Any rational person would choose stability, peace, and a good quality of life over the fine detail of the settlement of a political grievance. The difficulty lies in making sure peace really is on offer – which is why, despite this setback, Israel must still consider a long-term truce with Hamas, backed up by international monitoring, even without a political solution. The final settlement is crucial, but both sides will find it hard to muster the political willpower for it, unless they are already enjoying the benefits of stability and peace.
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Chris Davies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – spot the difference!
Chris Davies MEP has recently published a collection of articles on his website, detailing his responses to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past year or so. Here is a selection of what Chris has said on the subject. Readers can make up their own minds as to how principled and how consistent his views are.
I do not support any act of violence.
Chris Davies, 17 January 2007
The minority in Gaza who, out of despair, have taken up arms against an occupying army cannot be dismissed as ‘terrorists’. In the face of overwhelming and hopeless odds should their sacrifice not be saluted and awarded the same respect as that given to resistance movements of the Second World War?
Chris Davies, 6 November 2006
“What would you do in my shoes?” he [Aziz Duack, Hamas supporter] challenged. I take
it up. “In your shoes,” I respond, “I would re-read the works of Gandhi and organise a
great series of non-violent protest actions to be staged in front of the world’s TV cameras.”
Chris Davies, 11 April 2006
it up. “In your shoes,” I respond, “I would re-read the works of Gandhi and organise a
great series of non-violent protest actions to be staged in front of the world’s TV cameras.”
Chris Davies, 11 April 2006
If I had had to live through that as a Palestinian over decades and I was being given no hope for the future whatsoever, I might have considered being a suicide bomber.
Jenny Tonge, 21 September 2006
(Unchallenged and even applauded by Chris Davies, who was sitting next to her.)
I am not an anti Semite, nor am I anti-Israel, or anti-Jew.
Chris Davies, 17 January 2007
Chris Davies, 17 January 2007
I shall denounce the influence of the Jewish lobby that seems to have far too great a say over the political decision-making process in many countries.
Chris Davies, 4 May 2006
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