In the aftermath of Labour's humiliation at the polls last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been putting himself about on the broadcast media. And a disconcerting experience it is too. He did a soft interview with Fern Britton on ITV's Good Morning'. It is worth watching, if only to reinforce the sense that Gordon Brown is, in fact, a rather weird individual. Meanwhile attention begins to focus on David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservative Party.

A Turkish “reader” sent us the following email, including the links and the picture which he found here.

From: <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, May 9, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Subject: Warning!
To: [email protected]

According to the great if controversial German jurist, Carl Schmitt, who also wrote eloquently on the laws of war and on world geopolitics, the relationship between the United States of America and the rest of the world is defined by its relationship to Europe.
 
In 1832, runs his argument, Washington proclaimed the so-called Monroe doctrine. Named after President James Munroe who authored it, the doctrine holds that European powers should stay out of the Western hemisphere. It has been invoked numerous times during American history, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including most notably in the Spanish-American war which ended in victory for the US over Cuba in 1898.

A quote from the Economist blog, 7 May 2008
 
A source close to Mr Sarkozy describes Mr Barroso and Mr Juncker as highly regarded favourites for the job of commission boss and first president of the council: unless the two swap jobs.

A quote from Gérard Pince at his blog, 5 May 2008 [english translation here]

The election results in Italy and the UK should encourage us to take advantage of the 2009 European elections to provoke the healthy shock our country [France] needs. The defeat of the mayor of London [Ken Livingstone, a.k.a. Red Ken], known for his multiculturalist and pro-Islamic positions, is in this respect emblematic. Keeping in mind that that city's demographics include 30% of visible minorities, for the conservative candidate to be elected he had to win the majority of the white British population. In addition all observers consider these victories to go beyond the traditional political or sociological divisions. They are explained instead by the growing feeling of national identity and the rejection of uncontrolled immigration. (Votes are more and more ethnic. For example, 90% of the black community is voting en bloc for Barack Hussein Obama. No matter how hard they try to tell us that skin color doesn't matter, it turns out that it is more and more visible on voting day.)

A quote from the BBC, 6 May 2008
 
Nicolas Sarkozy has withdrawn his backing of Tony Blair to become the first president of the European Union, senior sources have told the BBC. The French president is understood to have changed his mind after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is thought he feels EU opposition to the former UK prime minister is too strong because he backed the Iraq war. [...]

After conservative victories in Italy and England, are the French finally finding their way to a new and healthy alternative to both Jean-Marie Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy?

The websites are talking about a new movement that has been formed the Nouvelle Droite Populaire (NDP), composed of defectors from Le Pen's Front National, members of Bruno Mégret's MNR (National Republican Movement), and other nationalist, sovereignist and regionalist groups, parties and individuals. This is not a political party but an assembly of like-minded individuals who espouse a policy of both decentralization, i.e., regionalism, and nationalism. After an initial meeting on March 29 to lay the groundwork, a second meeting on April 27 adopted the official name which translates as New Popular Right. Their website outlines the group's goals:

A quote from EUobserver, 6 May 2008

Brussels officials have turned to religious VIPs to help spread the gospel of an environmentally friendly society and increase awareness of climate change in their parishes, as well as promoting tolerance between different confessions in Europe. Twenty high-level representatives – 19 men and one woman – from European Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations met in Brussels on Monday (5 may) to discuss the sensitive issues of climate change and reconciliation between peoples.

A quote from Der Spiegel, 5 May 2008

The EU's monetary affairs commissioner has called for far-reaching new powers for the European Commission. He would like Brussels to have greater control over economic policy in euro zone countries – and even wants its members to speak with one voice on the international stage. […] [EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia] says the Commission should also have a hand in determining “adequate wage developments, flexibility and security on labor markets.”

A quote from The Birmingham Post, 28 April 2008

Election fraud driven by immigrants practising "village politics" of the Indian sub-continent could be a crucial factor in deciding the future control of Birmingham City Council, a major report warns today. Family loyalties, the dominance of men and the existence of the "biraderi" clan system among British Asians provides perfect conditions for widespread rigging of postal votes and other electoral malpractice in Britain's major cities, according to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. In a 94-page report called Purity of Elections in the UK – Causes for Concern, the trust argues that the UK's election system is close to breaking point and at risk of fraud, as the countdown to May's local elections gets under way.