UK loses 24-1 at EU summit trying to stop transparency and televised debates.

Brussels. EU Summit Friday.

There was a motion that “all council deliberations on legislative acts” should be open to television.

Now Mr Blair is for openness, transparency, Freedom of Information (Mom and applie pie probably) indeed our own Parliament is televised live...This policy had almost everyone’s support, Europhiles and Eurosceptics, Government and Opposition, all three major parties - the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett were both there.

Sat next to Tony Blair, Mrs Beckett argued against the reform. She was heard in complete silence, the silence of embarrassment. She put the case against openness — the case against settled British policy and practice, the case against liberal democracy, Jeffersonian honesty. She argued ( amidst stunned and silent unbelief) that ministers would negotiate privately on the telephone if their official negotiations were being filmed.

She argued.

The result ? UK lost 24 - 1. the UK Prime Minister and the caravanning Foreign Secretary were committed to the anti-democratic principle of secret European legislation, secretly arrived at.

Of course the UK were humiliatingly forced to back down and the President of the EU Finnish prime minister Mati Vanhanen said the initiative was "great" and that his country was ready to implement it over the next six months.

Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schussel welcomed the agreement saying it would bring "a breath of fresh air into the European house."

In April last year the rule 116 was adopted for greater transparency as follows...

The European Parliament Written declaration:

The European Parliament / having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas European Union legislators should not meet in secret when debating draft new laws,

B. whereas every EU head of government, in signing the constitutional treaty, indicated support for the principle that the Council of Ministers should deliberate in public when considering draft legislative acts,

C. whereas a change to the Council of Ministers’ rules of procedure, requiring a simple majority of votes in the General Affairs Council, is all that is necessary to introduce this improved practice,

1. Calls on the Council of Ministers to apply the principles of openness and transparency to its legislative work by making the necessary change to its rules of procedure;

2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Presidency of the Council.


Even the Daily Telegraph was not amused.

It is evident that the principles of Democracy are something that Tony Blair finds hard to swallow.... his poodles in Parliament have not of course raised a whisper. They have got used to him trampling over the ideals of a liberal society.

Lee Iacocca

"I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use.
Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish
and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it "

Seen the new VW Jetta ad ? Want to think about anything but a Government that sucks . Watch it now. Brilliant. It will make you think, which is the last thing the Gubment want you to do.