Why is it that there are so many politicians who are out-of-touch with the world of today? Their thoughts are still in a 20th Century time-warp and they cannot see that the times are changing very rapidly, along with the wishes and desires of the public they claim to represent.
They are attempting use use the past to deal with present matters and their thinking is not forward-looking but retrogressive. The obvious direction of European politics is for small nations which have a long-standing grievance against their more dominant neighbours, notably England, France and Spain, to assert themselves through the promotion of their native cultures and languages and become fully-fledged nation-states within Europe. This entails giving them a parliament which sends representatives to the European Parliament in Brussels. It also recognises their separate identities, their cultures and their languages, their right to govern themselves as part of the wider European federation.
This is devolution but not regionalism. It recognises the unique identity of nations such as Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Euskadia(Basque) and others, and provides the means whereby the people of these nations can express themselves and make their voices heard in the European community. It makes more sense and is far more democratic, by allowing the people to have a say in their own national affairs. Thus, there would be no question about arguing for a national holiday (St David's Day) or recognising lost battle sites or building monuments or restoring historic buildings. These matters would be dealt with as a national issue.
A parliament would pass laws far more efficiently than an Assembly creating LCOs which then have to be sent to another parliament for approval. Whoever thought up this system of law-making either intended to slow down the whole process, or was thinking with antediluvian mentality. This is not creative, radical forward-thinking.
It belongs to a different age.
Here's a thought: why not give the bloggers the job of running the country?
"The Nineteenth century saw a great Springtime of Nations as the revolutions of 1848 saw new countries created the length and breadth of Europe. In our world today we are now seeing our own Spring Awakening with people and cultures that have long been dormant and subdued asserting their right to exist, their right to dream." Adam Price MP
Hi - Google’s Blog alert sent me to this post because of the term “regionalism.” I enjoyed the post and will include a link to it in the July 9 issue of Regional Community Development News. http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ Please visit, check the tools and consider a link. Tom
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