David Cameron: A game of Shadows

Lo folks, I have been meaning to write something relating to the recent (well not that recent any more) European parliament election.

Fist of I want to say I deeply regret the rise of extremist parties on both sides of the political spectrum. especially the openly anti-semitic, islamophobic, homophobic and anti-zigenistic ones. What I, as a strong supporter of the European cooperation, regret almost as much is the rise of Euroscepticism. And even more what it has led to.

You see while the most extreme ideas mentioned above are certainly frightening, there aren't enough of any one of those groups to cause any real damage. However Euroscepticism is a prevailing thread through each and every one of these extremist parties and thus a much more powerful force inside the European parliament following the election. What is even more disturbing is the decision of several key leaders in Europe to appease the eurosceptics by taking a harder line on the European cooperation
The most important of these is of course the guy in the title, David Cameron, the prime minister of the united kingdoms.
David Cameron has decided that Jean Claude Juncker who represent the party-group that received the most votes in the election, EPP (European People's Party), is too federalist to become president of the European commission and has thus decided to work against him.

Now to understand the problem we need to understand the European Union. The peoples of Europe chose the European parliament, who are the main legislature and decision making body of the union.
"Taking in account the result of the election" the european council, which is made up of the heads of states of the member countries of the EU proposes a candidate for the job as president of the European commission (as well as some other positions, all at once). Before the treaty of Lisbon a unanimous decision had to be reached. But now a majority vote is enough to propose a candidate. The European parliament then votes to either accept or reject this proposal.
Why is it important? Well the European commission is the lawmaking body of the union, all that the parliament can do is to accept or decline to the proposals made by the commission, controlling the commission is thus controlling the direction Europe is going.

Considering the new clause of "Taking into account the result of the election", and earlier critisism that the process of deciding the president of the commission  is a very opaque process, often settled in back-room deals, the five main party-groups of the european cooperation came together to try and reform the process for greater transparency. They thus elected each a representative that they would put forward and offer as a choice for president. That way a voter would know who they voted for depending on which party he voted on.
There is however nothing forcing the European council to chose these candidates, they can chose to take the result of the election into account by other means. And this is the idea that Cameron is trying to push. Truth is that Britain has always preferred weak leaders of the EU. And Cameron is again looking to install a puppet of the council (where Britain on account of being a powerful country has a lot of power).

The problem is that doing so is a step back, a step back towards an opaque process a step back towards backroom deals and games of shadow. A step back to the system that led to the saying "If you think a person might be president of the commission you can be certain they never will".


Now today David Cameron along the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, the German Chanselor Angela Merkel and my own (Swedish) prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is meet in Stockholm to discuss who will be the next president, behind closed doors (yet again). At least Reinfeldt is know to support Cameron's coup (despite going to the election on an EU friendly line, and supporting Juncker's proposed free trade agreement with the US). While Merkel probalby just want to keep Cameron from following up on his threat to leave the EU should Juncker be elected. They ow seek a candidate that the parliament can't afford to dismiss or who can gather enough support in the parliament regardless of the promise the party groups made not to support anyone but the candidates.

Truth is as some of the presidential candidates said during the live debate, if they disregard the will of the European people this time, they will have a very hard time to get people to vote in the next European election. Also stepping back from the idea of transparency that the candidates represent at this point will deal a crippling blow towards the work for increased transparency in the Union. We can pretty much stop saying Europe is a democracy if they make this decision behind closed doors. And doing it to appease the British who are going to vote on leaving the union regardless of who gets chosen as the next president is ridiculous, if the British want to leave there is little we can do to stop them but David Cameron is fishing for support in the waters of UKIP voters, UKIP who went to the election with the idea that they want European cooperation dismantled entirely.

So I ask the European council, please affirm the party-groups interpretation of the process, please stand up for  transperacy. Please don't let the British ruin the European Union for the rest of us. Please end the game of shadows and take European politics into the light.

I don't like Juncker either but he's not worth sacrificing the possibility for greater transparency in the European Union to stop.

P.S. the name of the article is of course a reference to Cameron's fellow Britt, Sherlock Holmes and the Movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The main difference is that Sherlock Holmes seek to unravel the game of shadows while Cameron seek to maintain it.

Take Back The Flag!

This is a call to arms! Or rather a call to words, or perhaps pictures.
You see today is the Swedish national day, and Sweden as so many other countries out there is plagued by nationalistic right wing extremism, which in turn is besieged by left wing extremists. Hate versus hate. And so hate breeds hate. People get profiled either as any of these three groups, Foreigners, racists or violent anti racists.
I say it's a trend we need to break and thus I offer this call to pictures. The idea as a campaign against hate in all it's forms we shall reclaim the old patriotic symbols not as symbols of superiority of us and inferiority of others but as what they should be, sources of pride, in the best sense of the word. The foremost of these symbols is the flag. So let the flag be the icon of what we try to do, Let's take back the flag from the extremists, not as an act of hate but as restoring it to what it should never have ceased to be.

Let it represent unity not division.

Let it represent hope not despair

Let it represent pride not guilt or shame

Let it represent love not hate.

What I ask of you is that whoever you are, wherever you are that you during your national day post a picture on social media of your countries flag with the hashtag #TakeBackTheFlag.
So here's the view from my window:

Let the flags parade here not opposed but united as equals for a more open and more understanding world.
 Until next time folks!