Brexit

[Witton Park]

I'm not a historian, but I doubt an authoritarian regime just pops up overnight from nowhere.

Look at the EU attitude. There are plenty of examples away from Brexit of it showing some early signs of a distain for the democratic mandates of a nation state.
I think Austria was the first to get it's wrists slapped and off the top of my head we've had Greece, Poland, Hungary.
We have the attitude to elections in smaller nations where they are asked to try again. Note when France rejected the plan by a referendum they scrapped the plan and went back to the drawing board and brought it back in a way that avoided the need for a referendum in France, rather than ask France to go again.

They have a project. It seems to be that nothing is allowed to derail the project.

[Witton Park]

This from the UK Defence Journal.


The EU has also established Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) a strategy which aims to “jointly develop defence capabilities and make them available for EU military operations” which the UK has chosen not to participate in.”

Sounds like an army by proxy to me. What sort of "EU military operations " do they envisage?

If you look at the idea pf PESCO I think there are some merits to be found.

If the EU needs to deal with an issue like Kosovo again, it could make sense to have a structure in place to pull resources together.

It's possible to see now (I hope not) how tensions in Spain could flare up to the point where a small, perceived to be neutral security force akin to the UN peace keepers, could be deployed to try and settle tensions.

I also think it's sensible where we have many nations with very small budgets that won't stretch to aircraft carriers and other expensive capital items, that there is some capability planning.

That would make sense if under the NATO umbrella and coo-ordinated by the British and French.

In my opinion it is a cause for concern when it is done under the EU and statements come from some EU officials to suggest that there might be a longer term plan for this to be a breakaway from NATO as opposed to a sub-group within NATO to help NATO function better.

[Muddy Retriever]

it doesn't and has no plans to have one.

Both Merkel and Macron have called for the creation of a European army.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8631806.html

Ms Merkel endorsed the creation of the army while addressing MEPs at the European parliament in Strasbourg.
“We should work on a vision of one day establishing a real, true European army,” Ms Merkel said.

Macron:

“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America.“We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army.”

[Dave_Mole]

Merkel and Macron have called for the creation of a European army

"one day" and the EU still

has no plans to have one

as for PESCO: what, should the various armies of the EU not cooperate?
And look, I agree with WP on something!

[Dave_Mole]

OK, so let's have a definition from a Yale philospoher who recently published a book on it:

"In the past, fascist politics would focus on the dominant cultural group. The goal is to make them feel like victims, to make them feel like they’ve lost something and that the thing they’ve lost has been taken from them by a specific enemy, usually some minority out-group or some opposing nation.

This is why fascism flourishes in moments of great anxiety, because you can connect that anxiety with fake loss. The story is typically that a once-great society has been destroyed by liberalism or feminism or cultural Marxism or whatever, and you make the dominant group feel angry and resentful about the loss of their status and power. Almost every manifestation of fascism mirrors this general narrative".

being "authoritarian, intolerant of any dissent” does not make a fascist. Although that does rather sound like you.

[Muddy Retriever]

"one day" and the EU still has no plans to have one

Oh come on, that is the clear direction of travel. They don't make any secret of the fact.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8633196.html

The European Commission has said it is “delighted” that the leaders of France and Germany have backed the creation of a “real” EU army.

[Oracle]

I suggest you read this.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

There is no single definition, although the EU meets many of the list in Humberto Eco properties.

To avoid ambiguity I stated what I meant. And on that basis EU is fascist.
Ultra nationalism is not necessary, although some fascist regimes are nationalist.


You always avoid the substantive issues:

what kind of thinking conceived of eternal annexation of Northern Ireland under EU rule, destroying the right of a democracy to self determine, and in that case EU committed the ultimate violation of the good Friday agreement?

It can Only be an EU that has utter contempt for democracy.

The same contempt that thinks “ death of a nation state” , removal of veto’s and opt outs,
God forbid such a despotic regime ever acquired the “ demonstration of power” it craves for an EU army,

OK, so let's have a definition from a Yale philospoher who recently published a book on it:

"In the past, fascist politics would focus on the dominant cultural group. The goal is to make them feel like victims, to make them feel like they’ve lost something and that the thing they’ve lost has been taken from them by a specific enemy, usually some minority out-group or some opposing nation.

This is why fascism flourishes in moments of great anxiety, because you can connect that anxiety with fake loss. The story is typically that a once-great society has been destroyed by liberalism or feminism or cultural Marxism or whatever, and you make the dominant group feel angry and resentful about the loss of their status and power. Almost every manifestation of fascism mirrors this general narrative".

being "authoritarian, intolerant of any dissent” does not make a fascist. Although that does rather sound like you.

[Witton Park]

I think this sorts it

fascist
[ˈfaʃɪst]

NOUN
an advocate of Brexit or follower of the Tory or Brexit Party
"David Lammy went to Boston, Lincs to fight against the fascists" · [More]
synonyms:
authoritarian · totalitarian · autocrat · Nazi · extreme/far right-winger · rightist · thick [More]

ADJECTIVE
relating to a desire to leave the EU.
"a parliamentary coup threw out the old fascist regime of Boris Johnson"
synonyms:
authoritarian · totalitarian · dictatorial · despotic · draconian · autocratic · popular [More]

[Dave_Mole]

God forbid such a despotic regime ever acquired the “ demonstration of power” it craves for an EU army,

why? what do you think they're going to do?

[Witton Park]

This is way out of order.

I would hope you would reconsider and delete the post and if not, perhaps someone can remove it.