Malibuflyer wrote:
it would be quite impractical if you had to vote for ten thousands of administrative staff in your country
That’s how it works in the USA. I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing (although I lean towards “good”), just that it can be done and is being done.
Cummings is/was a political advisor, holding no official office. They are a de facto part of our system of government now, and doubtless in other countries too. I view them as a problematic development, as do many, but there is no real way to prevent an elected office holder taking ‘advice’ from anyone they choose.
Frost is a career diplomat, later a political advisor (see above) and now a cabinet minister as a member of the Lords. The latter is relatively uncommon nowadays and perhaps ought to be discontinued.
Carrie is Boris’s girlfriend. He’s allowed one, right?
None of this is relevant to the point though. UvdL holds an apparently administrative role, but seems very keen to exercise executive power.
I will not reply as it is non Covid related, I understand Peter’s problem.
Yeah move it. It is quite interesting to see that people don’t seem to know that the EU Commission acts like a government because IT IS the EU government / the main executive body of the EU. It is not some sort of civlil service. It is only an administration in the sense that the US is currently under the Biden adminstration.
According to Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty it is the main (in fact, only) body that proposes new EU law, which is one of the defining functions of a government in parliamentary democracies, and hence the Wikipedia articles (I looked at the English, German, French, Spanish and Italian versions) compare its functions to the national government / Regierung / gouvernements nationaux / gobierno, only the Italian version doesn’t.
Didn’t Dominic Cummings engineer the removal of a chancellor of the exchequer a case of unelected power? Isn’t the choice of Lord Frost instead of the elected Michael Gove, to deal with the problems of the NI protocol an example of the unelected having power over the elected?
And whilst I have no problems with MP’s even PMs or Presidents having girlfriends, but was it not reported that the said unelected girlfriend was responsible for the removal of the unelected Dominic Cummings?
All this I really see as nothing to do with me and how the UK does its business is up to them.
However, I do see it as a bit rich for Brits to accuse the commission of not having democratic roots, or too much executive power, when UvD’s crime was that she overstepped he powers and apologised for doing so within a matter of 3hrs, after it was pointed out that her actions would have put at risk the Northern Ireland protocol. And it only took a telephone call from the pm of one of the smaller EU members, Ireland. Not only that but a system was put in place whereby an Irish comissioner would from now on check anything coming out of the commission which might have an effect on the protocol.
How long did it take BJ to U turn on free school meals?
gallois wrote:
Didn’t Dominic Cummings engineer the removal of a chancellor of the exchequer a case of unelected power?
No, because he didn’t – he may have given the Prime Minister some advice, but the accountability for this decision rests with the Prime Minister, regardless of whether the idea is his own or someone else’s. One person (in this case the PM) is directly accountable to the electorate for these decisions.
Isn’t the choice of Lord Frost instead of the elected Michael Gove, to deal with the problems of the NI protocol an example of the unelected having power over the elected?
No, because once again the elected minister(s) responsible are directly accountable for this, and are responsible for instructing Lord Frost to do what he did. Frost does nothing without the blessing and/or instructions of an elected member of the government who is accountable to the electorate for whatever Lord Frost does.
And whilst I have no problems with MP’s even PMs or Presidents having girlfriends, but was it not reported that the said unelected girlfriend was responsible for the removal of the unelected Dominic Cummings?
She was not responsible for the removal of Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister was responsible and is accountable for this decision.
It’s rather like the captain of a plane. You might delegate certain responsibilities to the cabin crew, but you as captain are accountable for their actions. Same with advisers. Whichever elected official engaged their services is directly accountable for their actions.
The difference with UvdL is that she certainly appears to be acting autonomously, and there doesn’t seem to be any one individual with whom the buck stops except UvdL herself. The other problem is countries often only send their second-rate politicians to the EU in order to get rid of them. I’m sure if the UK were still in the EU, the UK would have got rid of Chris Grayling this way.
@alioth IMO that is a typical blinkered Brit point of view. UvD is accountable to a whole raft of elected people, the first of which is the “elected” European parliament.
It was, I agree certainly the case that the English did have a habit of electing 2nd rate politicians to the European parliament, but that is not necessarily the case of other countries many of which take the election of MEP’s a little more seriously.
And if Chris Grayling is the best you’ve got for one of the comissioner jobs, well that would have been up to you.
But now, what is your problem? You are free of UvD and the EU, they have as little say in your way of life as Macron and Merkel. You can do it your way. That was what the people of the UK wanted and got.
It’s time to stop criticising and just get on with it.
Certainly the people in my area of France are doing just that. The only time we talk of Brexit is if a Brit brings it up, and that’s not often. Its rarely in the newspapers or on television news. We don’t have debates about it. We don’t feel the UK need to be punished. We think the vaccine roll out in the UK is something for the nation to be proud of but only if you don’t rub it in the noses of everyone else.
We do have an ever increasing anti AZ sentiment. We do want to trade with the UK, but we are not going to abandon our two pin plugs in favour of your square three pin ones.
We have a peference for fresh fish and other food stuff. We don’t want chlorinated chicken or homogenized beef, so we expect the EU to protect us from it through regulation.
We like fabric covered wooden aircraft but we are not anti – American metal aircraft or Ukranian plastic aircraft. We just want to fly and when not flying enjoy the quality of life, we have enjoyed for the last several decades.
but we are not going to abandon our two pin plugs in favour of your square three pin ones.
You’ve got that right 
The UK 3 pin plugs are a horrible design. They pins are good for about 100A, but the wire terminations aren’t.
The big Q would be: will France go back to the 3 phase domestic supply? A friend has a house in SE France and it still has some of the 4-pin sockets. I believe they are not live anymore though. Maybe electric cars will show that France was ahead of the game all along.
Well, if I speak for myself and several of the neighbours we all have 415v each taking three phase coming into the house. It is then split into 3 main bus bars 1 for each of the 3 phases which feed eg a lighting circuit, a heating circuit etc. all operating on single phase 210v -230v.
New rules means that I really need to change all the fuses for circuit breakers, eats into my flying budget.:))
