Three Speeches and a Vote

Regular readers will know I am engaged on a book project, so new posts on this blog are less frequent. In the last several days some interesting things passed by without a comment, but I am now going to revisit three speeches and come up to date with today’s vote in the German parliament.

Obama’s Speech to the U.N. This was by far the worst speech of his Presidency, not because of style, but because of content.  It is manifest to everybody that negotiations about Palestinian statehood are going nowhere.  They have been going on and off for years, decades even. Israel wants its own way and so long as it is supported by the U.S. it will try to get it. Until Israel is backed into a corner and fears for its own legitimacy and until American Presidents have the guts to face down the Israel lobby in Washington, there will be no solution.

Taking it to the U.N. elevates the Palestinian cause to a higher and wider platform. World recognition of Palestine as a state, however ramshackle and imperfect, would open a new opportunity for these oppressed people and force Israel to concede that a two state solution was not a negotiating round robin, but a matter of fact. It would not take long to make some progress over contended borders and illegally occupied land, because Palestine would have full access to the diplomatic machine of all the world. That is exactly what Israel does not want.

Barroso’s Speech to the European Parliament There was nothing wrong with this speech, other than the date upon which it was made. All of these things should have been talked about, thought about and voted on before the Euro, not after, and certainly not in the midst of a crisis. Of course the Eurozone needs central government, but by what and elected by whom?  What is its relationship with the non euro part of the EU to be? This is urgent and this government is needed yesterday but where are the meetings and plans to set it up? As for the tax on financial transactions, the Tobin tax, most of it would fall on London, not in the Euro. Thus it will be vetoed by any UK government. The time in Europe for ringing declarations about things which can never happen is  long gone.  What is needed is action on things which can.

The vote in the Bundestag Chancellor Merkel did well and the vote to set up the Euro bail out fund was passed with a huge majority. Very good. What is not very good is to celebrate this as some kind of saving of the day, since already we know that the fund agreed will have to be expanded to a least e2 trillion, maybe much more. As Germany has to cough up the lion’s share, there can be no certainty that the approval of that giant leap will be carried, or that Merkel’s government will survive the attempt.

Ed Milliband’s Speech to the Labour Conference. From the standpoint of a healthy democracy this was a good speech. Labour has to move to the left and re-connect with its mission of standing up for the disadvantaged and the hard working, while calling time on exploitation of everyone by vested interests, monopolies, cartels, software contractors, bankers, utility companies and a whole lot more. This creates the political tension to produce meaningful change to improve lives. Pushing and shoving on the centre ground does not.

What was not so good was running around the next day from one media station to the next, trying to make out he had never said any of it. Courage of convictions is the first requirement of leadership.

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