Bucking Thatcher

Stewart Morris in his essay Did Thatcher Governments Change Britain? and abridged greatly here, states that the changes of the Thatcher years were in political style; the attempt to present an image of ‘strong government’ to the electorate.

Write me no Rights!

Historically the United Kingdom developed an ‘uncodified’ constitution – not a written constitution. Civil liberties remain dependent on ad hoc statutory protection or upon judicial protection under common law. The 1998 Human Rights Act (HRA) only invested the judiciary with the power to make a declaration of incompatibility with the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), The judiciary has no power to ‘make new law’. Parliamentary Sovereignty was maintained and a parliament only had a duty to ‘consider the findings of the judiciary’, being only bound by its international obligations through the ECHR.

More EU Lore?

A 2009 post ‘UK laws and the EU – A myth?’ included claims made that EU Directives and EU Regulations were now responsible for a large percentage of UK law. Daniel Hannan’s 84%, UKIP’s 75% and David Cameron’s 50%, have now become lore, despite the truth being that ‘no one really knows’. Nevertheless, they must have some influence on UK trade and commerce.

A recent press release by the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) stated that only 12% of firms want to leave the EU altogether. While remaining a part of the EU, 47% wanted to negotiate a looser relationship and 26% want to maintain the status quo. The rules and regulations imposed by Brussels resulted in 35% responding that they outweighed the benefits of a the Single Market.

A Brussels Effect

Anu Bradford’s ‘Brussels Effect’ is the theme of her article ‘The Global Rise of a Regulatory Superstate in Europe’. Published in the the Globalist she says that the European Union (EU) influences worldwide markets through its regulatory and legal framework, impacting on the everyday lives of citizens around the world by setting global rules governing a variety of areas, such as food, chemicals, antitrust and the protection of privacy.

Seeking Keynes – The Treaty

A previous post Seeking Keynes – the cake introduced John Maynard Keynes   and his book  THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE.  Keynes wrote the book in 1919 following his resignation from the British delegation to the  Paris Peace Conference, when it became evident that there was no hope of substantial modification in the draft Terms of Peace.  The following is a condensed version of selected parts in which Keynes considered the nature of Europe and the Treaty of Versailles.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is an international court set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.Since 1998 it has sat as a full-time court and individuals can apply to it directly. In almost fifty years the Court has delivered more than 10,000 judgements. These are binding on the countries concerned and have led governments to alter their legislation and administrative practice in a wide range of areas. The Court’s case-law makes the Convention a powerful living instrument for meeting new challenges and consolidating the rule of law and democracy in Europe. The Court is based in Strasbourg, in the Human Rights Building designed by the British architect Lord Richard Rogers in 1994 – a building whose image is known worldwide. From here, the Court monitors respect for the human rights of 800 million Europeans in the 47 Council of Europe member States that have ratified the Convention.

In Bondage

When the State spends more money than it receives in taxes — a fact indelibly written into the bond — it is deliberately committing an act of bankruptcy. The use of the word investment in connection with a bond issued by the State is a treacherous euphemism.

The Flawed Euro

A fundamental flaw in the initial design of the euro made it unlikely that it could ever succeed and the determination to continue with economic policies, particularly in response to the global financial crisis, have made recovery from that crisis more difficult. A single monetary policy dictated by and serving the needs of the most powerful parts of the European economy, would be less appropriate for weaker parts of the European economy. The Greeks believed that their membership of the euro-zone was the entry ticket to the prosperity that the stronger members enjoyed. Encouraged by the apparent guarantee of support from those stronger members to take advantage of the asset inflation created by easy Europe-wide credit, ignoring the potentially damaging concentration of productive capacity in Europe’s industrial heartland that a single economy made inevitable.  In the longer term, when the periphery of the wider European economy began to slow down – even to close down – this was bad news even for the central core, whose markets would be less buoyant and whose obligations to weaker members would be likely to increase – because the euro would eventually handicap the whole European economy.

EUmenides

Not only a tragedy for Greece but a Greek Tragedy. The Eumenides appear in the final part  of  The Orestian Triloy, a Greek tragedy  written by Aeschylus  around 500BC.  The Eumenides was a euphemistic name given by the Greeks to the Erinyes (Furies:Latin).  Eumenides means ‘the benevolent ones‘ and was a term used by the Greeks to avoid invoking the wrath of  the Erinyes (the avengers of wrong).

Greek Tragedy is a literary composition in which a central character, acting as the tragic protagonist or hero, suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental thus rendering it meaningless, but is logically connected with the central character’s actions. Greek Tragedy stresses the vulnerability of human beings whose suffering is brought on by a combination of human and divine actions, but is generally undeserved with regard to its harshness.

From Greek fable to Greek myth

Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis writes for Channel 4 News about why the Euro crisis should not simply be seen through the prism of a famous Aesop fable.