Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "Brexit fallout dominates debate in European Parliament" video.

  1. What did Einstein call nationalism again? Oh yes, the measles of mankind.
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  2. FARUMP Yes, populists are very "ept" with the hoi polloi, but that doesn't make them any wiser.
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  3. FARUMP Wow, you're on a hair trigger. To set the record straight, you made it sound like nationalism is a natural product of high EQ. It is a fact that many social animals exhibit EQ as high or nearing that of ours -- emotions, after all, are a baser function. Yet we don't see highly social animals -- chimpanzees, killer whales and elephants, to name just a few -- engaging in nation-building. Nationalism is very much a human construct, and an increasingly outdated one at that. Having lived in Belgium for a considerable number of years, I know only too well how artificial the construct is. But despite appearances, the various communities in Belgium co-operate remarkably well. No internal borders needed. That is the future.
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  4. FARUMP You fail to appreciate that a nation goes far beyond natural social structures -- tribes, communities, pods, herds or what have you. We can't naturally identify with a nation. It takes hard work and -- all too often -- conflict to unify a nation and keep it that way. I'm not rejecting social structures altogether, as you seem to insist judging from your simplistic analogies. Maybe you should focus on my views as I express them and not speculate on what I might think and then lash out against these imagined views. Like I said, you're on a hair trigger. My point is, today's states are not written in stone. A fair number of them will fragment into more functional entities -- sovereign states, autonomous regions, federated states or whatever. Fact is, old fault lines are reappearing and new ones are emerging all the time. For better or worse, Europe is freeing itself from the mould it was squeezed in. Whether you want to call these newly-formed smaller entities nations or something else is just semantics, but some kind of overarching co-operation body is still needed to keep the new normal from getting out of hand. Now there's a role for the EU. Devolution at the base and centralisation at the top. Belgium is a shining example. Not of a well-functioning nation state, but of how an artificial nation that was broken to begin with manages to reshape itself peacefully into functional entities, two tumultuous centuries notwithstanding. Myself, I found Belgium a happy place, a secret gem tucked away in an part of Europe where you necessarily wouldn't go looking. You clearly haven't spent much time there.
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  5. FARUMP You missed the point -- several points in fact. And you keep at it with those silly straw men of yours. Firstly, I'm not advocating that we do away with local governments. On the contrary, I'm saying we should empower them further, so people have more say over their affairs and develop a stronger sense of involvement -- devolution, in other words. However, where there are common interests with other similar communities, joint law-making makes perfect sense -- trade, foreign affairs and defence are good examples. Centralisation, in other words. To name just a few, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Swiss cantons, the German states and the communities in Belgium all adhere to this principle. So much for your utopias and Maoist book clubs. Secondly, your understanding of Belgian politics is sadly superficial. Belgium boast no less than six governments, which makes the country extremely resilient to political crises. Therefore, not being able to form a new central government posed no acute problem. In fact, it had its benefits for the Flemish, who're increasingly outspoken about secession. But you're the one on hallucinogens if you believe in an outbreak of inter-communal violence in Belgium, which international experts laud as a success story in conflict resolution. In comparison, Northern Ireland is an utter disgrace. Come to think of it, the Flemish may just be the perfect Europeans. As a small people on a big continent, they're enviably involved in politics on so many levels -- local, communal, national and European. They know their place in the world but they have no qualms about standing up to a central government when it needlessly meddles in their affairs.
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  6. FARUMP Since when do Stormont and Holyrood set their own trade, foreign and defence policy? Do you realise that you're guilty of hypocrisy if you accuse the EU of something the UK is equally guilty of? Besides, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, suggesting that they're comfortable with being in not one but two supranational unions. Incidentally, their neighbouring Little Englanders have a problem with one but not the other -- I guess because the Englanders can't dominate the bigger one. I'm a hunter and an army reservist. To these ends I own two self-loading rifles -- an absolute no-no in Britain for civilians, EU or no EU. After the terrorist attacks in France, the EC set out to ban the type. After the usual consultations, we're landing ourselves an exemption. It was a nuisance, but I understand because we're sharing this union with others whose populace can't be trusted with firearms that destructive. Furthermore, you must've missed that in the past, EU members have dealt the union serious blows -- the most notable being the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters. To this day, EU treaties require ratification by all members. I guess that's also news to you.
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  7. FARUMP What are you on about? Did I question the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum? Didn't I just write that the Scots are comfortable being in both the UK and the EU? Please try to keep it together. .22 is for plinking. 7.62 is the legal minimum for hunting elk. The .22 isn't much use at military ranges either. Even a moderate wind blows the bullet off course, to say nothing of twigs. Anyone with basic firearms knowledge knows this. And what's this open border crap that you keep throwing at me? I'm literally defending the longest border the EU has. I have kept my views on border controls to myself and quite frankly, I don't care to discuss the topic with the likes of you. The Treaty of Lisbon was ratified, and with opt-outs for the UK and Ireland, too. The EU can neither force nor prevent national referendums prior to ratification -- that's entirely up to the member countries. It's painfully obvious that the EU -- or rather, its member states -- have had "unhappy" referendums. Some time ago, the Dutch decided to have themselves a referendum, this time about something as uncontroversial as the EU association agreement with Ukraine. It got rejected, albeit with a record-low turnout. The initiator boasted that he hadn't read the agreement. Malcontents clearly hijacked the referendum. One more thing. You can save yourself the trouble of airing opinions over and over again. They're just hot air. Give me something I can sink my teeth into.
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  8. Again, a barrage of regurgitated opinion with a sprinkling of conjecture. I don't see much democratic deficit in EU law-making compared to law-making in the UK per se, but feel free to educate me -- if you've got it in you. True, both are in need of improvement. The EU struggles with voter apathy and transparency, but it's telling that Farage sought and secured a seat in the European Parliament -- not in British Parliament. He judged his chances slim to land one in the latter. The EP isn't saddled with first-past-the-post. I didn't call .22LR a toy. I shot grouse with it before I took up elk-hunting. This is bear country and sometimes a dog decides to up the ante and go after a bear instead. You don't want to fumble with a bolt-action when you've shot a Brown Bear through the heart and it still keeps charging at you. I've never shot twice at an elk and I've bagged quite a few. Can you say the same? Despite being in the thick of the refugee crisis, we've had no cases of illegal external border crossings -- this despite having the longest EU land border. This means that our border security has worked to perfection. Again, can you say the same?
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  9. FARUMP Didn't I warn you of hypocrisy? If you persist claiming that the European Commission is unelected, then by extension the British government is unelected. As a Brit, did you get to vote May PM? Come to think of it, did you vote Cameron in? No, you gave the Conservatives in parliament a mandate to form a government, which they did without consulting you any further. It's the same with the EU. The European Parliament and the European Council -- both elected bodies -- jointly form the European Commission. The Commission does propose laws, but the council and the parliament amend and approve them -- if they're not rejecting them outright. Again, very Westminster. Counter those cold, hard facts. Amusingly, you brought up the House of Lords. In it, genuinely unelected life peers, who have the power to delay or even nix Brexit. Thankfully, the EU is not encumbered by such feudal trappings. In case you've forgotten, I was championing devolution, which brings democracy closer to the people. You can claim that Britain settings its own trade and foreign policy leads to more power to the people, but if that power is severely curtailed to begin with, there's not much power to distribute. Globalisation doesn't favour small entities in these matters. In fact, small entities gain power by banding together. Not that it's in my nature, but I should be the one commending myself for being the bigger democrat here. You just shout out old and tired slogans against the EU, unable to put things into perspective. I'm perfectly proficient with a bolt-action, but if you know anything about rifles (which I'm now starting to question) you can't deny that a semi-auto is better insurance against being mauled by a charging bear. A combo rifle/shotgun loaded with a slug is probably even better, so it's not a Rambo thing. I also know perfectly well that you hunted your bears and elks to extinction on the British Isles, with the amusing after-effect that early English settlers in North America started calling elks moose and deer elks with lasting effect. Amateurs. Now go play with your slingshot.
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  10. FARUMP I repeat my very valid observation that you did not elect May PM. You elected her MP. The rest was completely out of your hands. The same goes for the House of Lords. They verifiably have the power to delay of even nix Brexit. Whether they will do so in practice is besides the point. Why bother giving the degenerate idle rich power, only to strip it away the moment they decide to wield it? You're the one who's insecure about guns. Your BR99 is a case in point. Only a wannabe Rambo forks out good money for a shotgun that's poorly disguised as a M16 assault rifle. You'd be a laughing stock at my local range. You embarrass yourself further by comparing elk to barn doors. In a hunt, if you merely wound an elk, every hunter in the vicinity is expected to join in and finish off the suffering animal. I joined a mega-party once -- close to a hundred hunters, all nitpicking on what went wrong. In this case, the embarrassed shooter had collapsed a lung, but the elk nevertheless ran for 20 km. Often, newbies pass up on difficult but perfectly doable shots because of the pressure. Didn't I mention we landed ourselves an exemption from the semi-auto ban? We kept what you didn't have and won't get back either, no matter how "hard" your Brexit is.
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  11. FARUMP It's about time I pull out my "thou doth protest too much" line. You're clearly overcompensating in criticising the EU, as if you're trying not to convince me, but yourself of doing the right thing vis-à-vis Brexit. Good luck with that. The Conservatives might just win the next elections, but only thanks to the archaic first-past-the-post system. But I wouldn't rule out a disaster-in-the-making either -- a shaky coalition with UKIP. You need to defuse that time bomb and electoral reform is just the ticket. I just compromised with the wife that my son will get an airgun when he turns seven, not six like myself. In other words, we grow up with guns, but not for the sake of it, but because in my family, we've got an unbroken hunting tradition that goes back to the very start of human history. Also, with very few exceptions, our able-bodied males are all proficient in the use of military-grade, fully automatic firearms, too. So unlike your lot, semi-autos don't give us the heebie-jeebies. Say, do you find cars with automatic transmission scary, too? I highly doubt you would pass our mandatory elk-hunting test without extensive training. Myself, I trained with seasoned French Foreign Legion snipers in Lebanon. Despite being a citizen soldier with only short stints in the military, I could hold my own, no doubt because I hunt. Knowing your inexperience in these matters, I should add that sniper rifles are predominantly bolt-action.
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