Merkel's Admission

In a letter that was supposed to be internal (i.e. not for leaking) Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany, the country that holds the rotating EU Presidency) admitted that the EU constitution was not dead and that it would be implemented by alternative means despite being refused by multiple referenda.

Merkel's words are:

to use different terminology without changing the legal substance

This has shocked me for two reasons:

1. We are so used to the EU treating us with disdain, running rough-shod over democracy and pretty much being the bad guys that we have allowed this piece of news to go past almost unnoticed (forgive me if I missed it).
2. This passed without so much as a protest march by those great masses of unemployed who were able to turn out about Iraq

For some reason, when human rights are being eroded in the Third World, Amnesty International and the do-gooder foundation come out en masse. But when democracy is being bare-faced ignored, and when that ignoring is being done by one of the world's big three governments (450 million people qualifies it for that honour if you ask me) they are strangely silent.

Okay, I'll be fair. I am sure Frank Field and Tony Benn (those two Labour MPs we can all respect) were angered, but that's not good enough people.

My party may not realise it again since they were humiliated in 2001, but the EU is the most important political issue of our time. In 2001 we lost an election and anything associated with that campaign is now considered bad... What madness — CameraOn has seen that the media is more important than policy, so why are the 2001/2005 manifestos now so unattractive to the decision-makers?