The farcical appointment of José Manuel Barroso

Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for South East England, commenting on the farsical appointment of José Manuel Barroso as European Commission president in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 September 2009.

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News & Politics

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• Daniel
• Hannan
• MEP
• Conservative
• Euro
• Europe
• European
• Barroso
• Commission

[PikeSdream]

Ireland Vote NO.....Again...

[tincoffin]

ywrty... You clearly do not understand what a democracy is . In the UK you can use your vote to get rid of the government .You cannot vote to get rid of the EU commission . That is why the EU is not democratic - you cannot get rid of the EU government by voting. the ability to get rid of governments is the only protection against the abuse of power which is the most important feature of a democracy. What you mean by more democracy is a greater say which is not the same thing

[DefendYourFreedom]

Sure Barosso seems like a nice chap, just like George Bush. As long as the topic remains about beer and naked women, not politics.

[zentrallondon]

hehe Kurski staral sie cos zrozumiec ale pod koniec mu nie wyszlo :)

[Maino88]

Lusophile

I think this is the only time I've ever heard Lusophilia mentioned by anyone, ever.

[1957Rotu]

@kinakona Yes, but only about eight people in Parliament applauded that speech.

And Hannan is obviously not a lawyer. Because, if he were, he would realise that, effectively the Council of Ministers (comprising representatives of the Member States) has a major role to play in the law-making process. The Commission may initiate legislation, but if it the Council are unhappy with it, the legislation can wither on the vine and die.

[kinakona]

aplaude to that speech!!!

[3martijns]

Not near enough time to explain it all. You would have to live here, as well as STUDY ALL of USA History to understand.

Don't feel bad - WHAT WORKS is not even being taught much in public schools anymore. Examples: Founding Documents, exceptionalism, Reagan conservatism, etc., etc., etc........

[3martijns]

Guess I'm spoiled by living in USA all my life, where we elect 1 prez, 100 Senators, and 435 Representatives. They work for the people, so are required to do the will of the majority, or get fired at their next try in 2-6 years. MUCH of Congress (about 470 up for re-election) will be voted OUT next November - bho's radical agenda is already losing, because congress is shaking.

Americans will NEVER willingly allow another country to control us.

Do you disagree with Mr. Hannan?

[ywrtywto09]

As for accountability in our "democracy", I disagree, we have very limited accountability most laws are passed without any parliamentary scrutiny, we have an electoral system where 22% of the electorate can elect a near dictatorship and where we have 200-300 super-injunctions in use at any one time and as for our MPs expenses, we wouldn't know anything without a disc being sent to the Telegraph and even then they redacted everything they could,, that is not my idea of "accountability"...

[ywrtywto09]

As for why it is somewhere between 10 and 20%, well the House Of Commons Library, states it is 9.1% (I rounded up), however that figure only looks at statutory legislation, which leaves out normal legislation via parliament, which is why the British chamber of commerce puts it at 20% in it's report.

[ywrtywto09]

Secondly it isn't even accurate for Germany as the German representative who came out with it only measured it against laws made in the German Parliament, seemingly forgetting that he lived in a federal system where significant areas of law making are handed to the Landers (states), which were not included in the calculations.