Comments by "Nigel Johnson" (@nigeljohnson9820) on "Three quarters of French citizens unhappy with Macron's policies" video.

  1. The French people elected a president of france, what they got was a want to be EU emperor.
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  2.  @buzzhawk  you should not hold out much hope for Corbyn, he is far more Eurosceptic than May. I cannot comment on the last paragraph of your post as it is nonsense and unrelated to any of my comments. If the French decide to warm the streets of their capital in winter with burning police cars, it seems reasonable to associate this with a significant level of disaffection with their government. Similarly if the French police feel the need for the mass distribution of powerful, toxic, vapour lachrymators, one can only surmise that the French government may not have the best interests of the people at heart.
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  3.  @buzzhawk  the UK had a referendum that decided to leave the EU. It will only be undemocratic if the Tory government manage to arrange for the UK to remain in the EU, either by revoking article 50 application or by being trapped in Mrs May's backstop deal. As for Macron, it does no look as if many of the French people think he is doing a good job or working for the French people.
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  4.  @buzzhawk  I have certainly advocated a second referendum over May's deal or a general election. May's deal is worse that no deal or a second referendum. A general election decides nothing regarding brexit, as the result may be determined by local issues unrelated to brexit and all vote do not count equally. The result of a second referendum is not a foregone conclusion in favour of remain. The is a 50:50 chance that it will only confirm the result of the last referendum. However, should it result in a vote to remain it contains a number of advantages for he brexiteers. First it sets a precedent for holding a third referendum at a later date, when the UK may be better prepared to leave. Second it further calls into question EU democratic credentials, fairly or unfairly, a second referendum will be seen as the EU engineering repeatedly asking the UK electorate the same question until it gets the answer it wants. Thirdly, it will put 17.4 million citizens back in the EU who do not want to be there and will be seeking the destruction of the EU. Forthly, it puts the UK back exactly where it started, but now with a far more Eurosceptic population, who will have noted how the EU operates in blackmailing and coercing member states. The EU negotiating style will have won no friend in the UK. The EU must expect the election of a troublesome Eurosceptic UK government and even more Eurosceptic MEPs. Lastly, it will give the UK the chance to block any further EU plans for greater integration or the formation of an EU army. So the only possible loss for the brexiteers is if Mrs May's deal is ratified by the UK parliament. While very unlikely, it is not impossible. Then you might see similar scenes as those recently experienced in France and other states across the EU. Brexit will still not be settled. It is convenient for the EU establishment to divide the protestors into left and right and play them off against each other, while denying that they really are protesting against EU policies. In each member state a common theme of protest against the local state government is the impression of austerity measures, but these measures can be traced directly back to EU policy to make the EU competitive with third world economies, which are attacking the European market through globalisation. This is an example of globalisation reducing all the world's economies to the lowest common denominator. It could be argued that economic migration to Europe is just another manifestation of this effect.
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  5.  @euromodeller  maybe because he can cling on to power until there is an opportunity for the people to vote to reject him.
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  6.  @nickatanassov104  even in ancient Greece, democracy was limited, but I agree that democracy is an illusion in most, if not all, countries. For some there is a pretence of democracy ,as in China , but other just do not bother. The larger the state, the greater is the dilution of the weight of the individual's vote, ( Another reason to leave the EU). Referendums are far more democratic than elections. In the former case,Irish a single issue vote and every vote counts equally. In the latter case, certainly in the UK, most votes make no difference because of the regional control exercised by the two main political parties. Proportional representation improve the power of the individual's vote, but at the cost of not being able to select their representative. Elections are also decided on many issues, given the winner the opportunity to select which policies in the party manifesto to emphasise and which to quietly ignore. In the UK the elected candidate is not the representative of the electorate, but represents his or her party, and must follow the party line, often against the interests of the constituents. So I agree that there is little real democracy, but what make the situation worse is that must governments are riddled with vested self interest and corruption and serve a small super rich ruling elite. If here is any hope is that wealth is also an illusion and can disappear if the mass of the people refuse to recognise it, something that might give the super rich a few sleepless nights.
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  7.  @nickatanassov104  I get the impression he is trying to emulate Napoleon and form a new French empire, but like Napoleon this is for the glory of France, not the French people who are incidental to the concept of France. Macron has spent his presidency trying to replace Merkel as the titular leader of the EU. He has also travelled around the world trying to consolidate global French influence and strength the links with the French colonies. Domestic issues have almost been forgotten, with the exception of EU instigated austerity. A necessity in achieving the goal of becoming the leader of the EU.
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