Euroscepticism Equals War

[Ignitionnet]

According to the EU President Herman Van Rompuy.

Fantastic fire power for Eurosceptics such as Daniel Hannan.

Another link of him expressing his concerns about nationalism.

Maybe his views are somewhat coloured by the fact his own home country, Belgium, has been unable to form a government for the past 5 months.

Bad choice of words or brazenly advocated deeper European integration?

[Ed2020]

Bad choice of words, in my opinion. I don't believe he intended "leads to" to be read as "inevitably leads to". I certainly didn't interpret any of the quotations as "euroskeptisism equals war".

[Mr Angry]

This may prove to be of interest.

I have to admit, I didn't find anything in the OP links that equated to the thread header - all I could find in that vein were

Nationalism represents a threat to the continent, as it no longer creates "a positive feeling of pride of one's own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of the others."

and

“The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism and nationalism leads to war.”

I am quite nationalistic, but am not a Eurosceptic - I see the two things as completely different, but could in extreme cases, lead to extreme outcomes.

[Angua]

Daniel Hannan is a notorious Euro Sceptic and should really be part of UKIP.

Used to get his anti Europe rants in my in-box when I was a district councillor. Found them impossible to read as they were so badly written. He must be so reliant on his editor.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

This may prove to be of interest.

Interested and outraged. Nice way to side-step the coalition agreement and indeed various promises in the past.

A law by cowards afraid the electorate will have things to say they don't want to hear.

---------- Post added at 10:40 ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 ----------

Originally Posted by Angua

Daniel Hannan is a notorious Euro Sceptic and should really be part of UKIP.

Used to get his anti Europe rants in my in-box when I was a district councillor. Found them impossible to read as they were so badly written. He must be so reliant on his editor.

Odd, I've corresponded with him directly and found his writing to be perfectly articulate.

I would presume he has some idea about language given he is fluent in three of them.

---------- Post added at 10:43 ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

I have to admit, I didn't find anything in the OP links that equated to the thread header - all I could find in that vein were and
I am quite nationalistic, but am not a Eurosceptic - I see the two things as completely different, but could in extreme cases, lead to extreme outcomes.

This one is all about the context - the comments were made in the context of discussion on European integration.

The irony of these comments coming from a guy whose own country hasn't had a government since June isn't lost on me though. Hard to have a sense of national identify when your own country is in turmoil.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

The irony of these comments coming from a guy whose own country hasn't had a government since June isn't lost on me though. Hard to have a sense of national identify when your own country is in turmoil.

Belgium a sense of national identity? Don't make me laugh. Some Flemish people (not many I hasten to add) are floating the idea of reuniting with The Netherlands...

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by danielf

Belgium a sense of national identity? Don't make me laugh. Some Flemish people (not many I hasten to add) are floating the idea of reuniting with The Netherlands...

That was exactly my point Daniel

If Belgium can't keep a sense of harmony with its Flemish and Walloons it seems pretty optimistic to hope that the over half a billion people in Europe with millennia of history between them want to all get together as one cosy happy family.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

That was exactly my point Daniel

If Belgium can't keep a sense of harmony with its' Flemish and Walloons it seems pretty optimistic to hope that the over half a billion people in Europe with millennia of history between them want to all get together as one cosy happy family.

OI, Mr. Serial Greengrocer!

Yes, fair point. Having said that: We'd better try imo. It gives us a better chance standing up against the US/China/India/whoever.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by danielf

OI, Mr. Serial Greengrocer!

Yes, fair point. Having said that: We'd better try imo. It gives us a better chance standing up against the US/China/India/whoever.

I dunno. Switzerland and Norway seem to be doing just fine, certainly their economies have dramatically outperformed the EU which has seen its' share of the world economy progressively shrink.

There's zero evidence thusfar that the EU has actually achieved anything in terms of 'standing up against' anyone. Quite the opposite if anything.



http://www.global-vision.net/facts/fact14_4.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy...European_Union

[Osem]

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Eurocrats still believe it's their way or no way. They only seem to hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. Not really indicative of a geunine belief in democracy is it.... Injudiciously applying the 'euro-straightjacket' to more and more countries in an attempt to compete on scale with the likes of India and China is naive and a recipe for disaster.

[Angua]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Odd, I've corresponded with him directly and found his writing to be perfectly articulate.

I would presume he has some idea about language given he is fluent in three of them.

In which case he needs to learn not to send out huge e-mails with no paragraphs.