It's been a long day, but at least I get a laugh as the time draws nearer to the cocktail hour.
I am reading a report which calls on the Commission not only to look into why women are oveweight (I thought the basics of that was generally understood, but clearly I am wrong) but that further communications from the Commission should take into account the problems of PMT.
Is this what our money is being spent on? Sadly, yes....
For I just agreed with something someone from the EU has written.
Four EU ministers have said that outdated protectionist methods of international trade will harm EU businesses, and so the EU must ease curbs on Chinese clothing imports or risk job loses. Personally, I don't see why the EU should have anything to do with it, surely it's up to individual countries to decide what passes over their borders, but if they insist on giving away their sovereignty then they must understand that they can no longer make decisions based on the best interests of their country.
It's interesting to note which countries these ministers come from: Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Notably not countries which spend each night frantically beating over the idea of a European Social model, in which their socialist ideals of inefficiency, no innovation, high rates of taxation and powerful unions reign supreme, and whose ears are deaf to the sounds of belly-laughs from countries who can understand that their politics will make the european union ship sink.
Even Sweden - a country where they tax fun have better ideas than only allowing people to work a maximum of 35 hours a week, for example. How can anyone start up a business when they are only allowed to work 4.8% of the week.
Thank-you, Mr Churchill. I think I'll conventional ignore your views on women and their role in society for a short period so I can focus on your quiet excellent comment. Unfortunately at the moment, we have puerile, ignorant people running our country, and the Labour government aren't much cop, so Britain is still choosing the holiday landmass as political Mecca. Mind you, there are some people here who chose Mecca as, well, Mecca and I think I prefer people allowing crazy laws to happen, rather than liberal-lefties allowing people inciting racial hatred to stay in the country and paying them, indeed.
I digress. We were talking about Churchill, and his comment that Britain is an Island, not part of the mainland, and we shouldn't forget that. Now we even have a Frenchman saying that. Maurice Druon has said that Britain's aversion to full integration means it should not be a full member of the EU, and let others get on with it. I like his sentiments. It's true - Britain does not want to hand over power of its economy to another supranational organisation (and quite why anyone would baffles me. Perhaps I should ask the Italians?), doesn't like fraud, has a former empire to trade with, and relations with America, rather than preferring to trade in a bloc and kill people in LDCs with subsidies, and is not as keen as other European countries on draconian laws and regulations set out to shoot SMEs in the head and make sure that we can never compete on the world stage without market interference. I say Britain doesn't like that. Clearly, our tin pot government does....
However, I have another point to say to M Druon. Yes, if you look at the recent YouGov poll, 62% of people asked wanted a referendum and 50% of those wanted to replace the EU nonsense with a free trade agreement, with 17% not sure so in Britain you can say we are taking a realistic attitude to the political union. However, M Druon, there was an important referendum in your back yard not so long ago, where, if I recall correctly, the majority of people in France made it perfectly clear that they did not like the way the EU was going by rejecting the European Constitution. The Constitution makes the EU responsible not just for 70% of domestic legislation anymore, but about 90% and is the furthest integration in Europe ever suggested. But the French and the Dutch say 'no'...Maybe they want to chose the open sea every now and again?
And I'm making the most of it. In fact, i am writing this post with aa lolly in one hand - strawberry, yummy.
I think one of the best things about summer, apart from ice creams and not having to wear boring boots to work all the time is that politicians go on holiday and stop fucking things up. There have been a distinct lack of stupid, damaging things done and said whilst both parliaments have been in recess which leads me to wonder, if the presence of MPs is directly related to bad things not happening, maybe they should be there as little as possible.
Politics isn't exactly hip and happening with young, or indeed, most people at the moment. Derek from Big Brother was in a recent poll about who should be the next tory leader. The reason they included him, I suspect, was that they needed to be sure of at least one name that those questioned would have heard of.
Cricket - isn't it lovely. But why do they stop for tea, and if they do stop, do they actually have tea? Earl Grey and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, followed by home made scones, clotted cream and jam?
Back in the black wedges today.
I popped into London Tayne to do a little bit of this and that today: you know, trying to sort my life out. Anyway, I was just off to St James's Park to eat my lunch when I thought 'you know, Trixy, your phone has been awfully quiet'. Yes, dear friends, the little Samsung was not in my bag. Panic not, though, for I found it.
I left it in a shoe shop.....
Which is all very well and nice, but after my visit to the doctors surgery across the road, I couldn't give two stuffs.
Oooh, I'm in one of those moods. But seriously, where do they grow medical receptionists from? This 'lady' told me that because I came from abroad (I live across the road, literally, from the surgery) that I needed to pay £40 to see the doctor. Since when did Green Street become some dividing waterway, separating one side of lower sunbury from the other? I tried to explain that I worked in Brussels, but was on the electoral register for the house across the road, which is where I officially live, and so was not so much of a foreigner, as just slightly higher paid. I think we made it there eventually, although I noticed that when she gave me a form to fill in, she didn't give me her nice pen to use, but some crusty old biro....
So back to politics. (must we?) According to this poll by Yougov, 62% of people think we need a referendum on our continued membership of the EU, and 50% think it should become what we were told it was going to be. Namely, a trading bloc rather than a country. I hope that the government listen, and that we do get a referendum. It baffles me how for so long we have not had a say on the single most important thing affecting our country - the institution which makes 70% of our laws, and is trying to make more by implementing the constitution even though it hasn't been ratified.
I'm still not entirely convinced by free trade blocs, though. Maybe it's the development economist with me, but why stop at your neighbours and let the poor people in LDCs starve? There's a whole world out there to trade with. Think about it. Initially we get cheaper goods, they get to benefit from our technology and then their economy starts to expand. Economies expanding need legitimate, democractic governments and ways of collecting taxation, as well as a fair legal system so things develop a little more. And this is the best bit: when the world is trading, and not letting it's poor relations starve, we don't have any more concerts given by Bob Geldof, and 'celebrities' who have no fucking clue what they are talking about will stick to making shit music, instead of shit political messages.
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