Let’s review where we stand, shall we? Since the French and Dutch “No” votes, five more states have approved the European Constitution, bringing to 18 the number of nations to have ratified. Meanwhile, every government remains devoted to the text.

A quote from Tory leader David Cameron in The Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2006

I believe that poverty is an economic waste and moral disgrace. In the past, we used to think of poverty only in absolute terms – meaning straightforward material deprivation, [but in future] we need to think of poverty in relative terms – the fact that some people lack those things which others in society take for granted. So I want this message to go out loud and clear: the Conservative Party recognises, will measure and will act on relative poverty.

A quote from an anonymous source close to French President Jacques Chirac in The Independent, 24 November 2006

He [=Chirac] believes that it will be impossible for Sarkozy, or any other male politician of her own generation, to attack Ségolène's offer to be the ‘mother’ of France. Only a ‘grandfather’ can point to the mother’s weaknesses – in other words himself.

Meet Kemal Kerincsiz. He's holding a placard that depicts Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I as entwined snakes. One wishes the great Churches were indeed so close. Weirdly, they appear to be ready to strike at an Orthodox cross. The text reads, "The Patriarch and Pope are in Fener. Where is the Turkish nation? We don't want the Pope in Turkey." (The Fener district is the part of Istanbul to which the Patriarchate has been relegated since the Turkish conquest. "Fener" is a Turkicized version of the Greek "phanari," or "lighthouse," which used to be the principal feature of that district. Prominent Greeks in the Ottoman era were therefore "Phanariots.")

A recent government shake-up has altered the immigration and healthcare systems irreversibly: Britain can now look forward to welcoming a new generation of European trainee doctors whilst waving goodbye to the Indo-British doctor model on which the National Health Service (NHS) has come to rest.

A quote from Edward Hugh at the Demography Matters blog, 23 November 2006

What can rapidly be seen is that Eastern Europe has the very unusual combination of both very low fertility and comparatively low first birth ages (in the Serbian case this currently seems to be somewhere round 25). Now what we do know is that in modern developed economies this age seems to trend upwards, slowly and inexorably, towards the 30 years of age range. [...] So eastern Europe is set to experience a continuing process of rising first birth ages, this is also likely to last for a good number of years, and during this process one outcome is guaranteed: a continuing birth dearth as people postpone having children. In many ways these countries are now firmly set between the proverbial rock and the hard place, as they badly need to raise the level of their economic 'net worth' and yet in order to achieve this objective they are only likely to produce less and less children, which means the structural problems in their population pyramids can only deteriorate.

A quote from Claus Vistesen at the Demography Matters blog, 3 November 2006

[L]et us look at a country in Eastern Europe with low fertility where pro-natalism actually seems to have worked at least given the initial evidence [Estonia]. [...] [W]ell done Estonia! However, what about other countries then and generally what would the initial outlook be for implementing pro-natalism as a general measure? [...]

Pro-natalist measures are essentially behavioural fiscal measures in terms of public budget policy and as such they have a negative effect on a country’s budget. [...] In order for pro-natalist measures to have a real effect and crucially to be fiscally sustainable they have to be enacted at a time where the society is actually capable of supporting the costs. As such pro-natalism cannot be enacted as a last-minute solution. [...]

Pro-natalism needs to be sustained [...]. A mere blip on the radar will not do and in short pro-natalism needs, to some extent at least, to be institutionalized as a structural mechanism.

All next week - specifically from 25 November through 3 December - I will be in Istanbul, Turkey, attending the Papal-Patriarchal events. The Pope's visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople will be an occasion for much tumult and comment, especially in light of his Regensburg address on faith and reason, which provoked so much indignation in the Muslim world.
 
Accompanying me on this endeavor is a distinguished group of writers and scholars, including but not limited to Dr. Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican, Dr. Daniel Schmidt of the Bradley Foundation, Rowena Itchon of the Pacific Research Institute, and Dr. John Birkenmeier of the University of Maryland.  Our writing and photography on this historic event will be collected at Pope and Patriarch, a new website focusing on Catholic-Orthodox affairs. 

A news headline from the Associated Press, 22 November 2006

Protesters occupying building detained

[the “protesters” were radical Islamists; the “building” the Hagia Sophia]

H/T lgf

Jan Marijnissen

Wednesday’s general elections in the Netherlands were won by the far-left. The Communist Socialistische Partij (SP) added 16 seats to the 9 it previously held, securing an overall number of 25 seats in the 150-seat Dutch Parliament. The SP became the country’s third largest party, overtaking the center-right Liberal Party VVD, which fell to 22 seats from 28. The centrist Christian-Democrats (CDA) of Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende remained the biggest party with 41 seats (44 previously), followed by the center-left Labour Party (PvdA) which lost nine seats, ending up with 33 seats. To the right, the Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), the anti-immigrant party of the late Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated in 2002 by an animal-rights activist, lost its 8 seats. It was replaced by the “islamophobic” Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, a breakaway Liberal, who gained 9 seats. The remaining 20 seats were divided among five parties, including the PvdD, a party of animal right activists who gained 2 seats in the first elections they participated in, and the Christen Unie (CU), a Calvinist and morally conservative but economically leftist party, whose seats doubled to 6.