On Sunday evening Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a five-minute address to the French people in which he attempted to explain the reasons for the parliamentary vote that ratified the Treaty of Lisbon. He said that “As a result of this success, and it is a success, France is back in Europe.”

The president also explained why there had not been a referendum: “In order to convince all of our partners to accept this new simplified treaty that we were proposing, which was no longer a Constitution, it was necessary to commit ourselves to an approval by parliamentary vote. [...] If this condition had not been fulfilled no agreement would have been possible.”

A quote from Bruno Waterfield’s blog, 11 February 2008
 
Plans to create a powerful new European Union “Interior Ministry” under the new Lisbon Treaty will be agreed in secret by Brussels officials over the next four or five months without any public or parliamentary scrutiny.
 
The new Reform Treaty resurrects proposals from the old EU Constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago, for a “Standing Committee on Internal Security”, already known as COSI in euro-jargon.

A quote from The Sunday Times, 10 February 2008

Medical research suggests that while British Pakistanis are responsible for 3% of all births, they account for one in three British children born with genetic illnesses.

A quote from The Sunday Telegraph, 10 February 2008

Mr [Phil] Woolas, [the environment minister] […] said: "Part of the risk, I am told by the health service, is first-cousin marriages. […]” The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a campaign group, suggested the minister was demonising British Muslims. An MPAC spokesman accused Mr Woolas of "flirting with Islamaphobia" […]

Nearly unreported in the American media is the imminent culmination of one of America’s modern wars: in this case, the 1999 Kosovo War, in which NATO attacked Serbia on behalf of a Kosovar Albanian guerrilla movement, and forced a de facto – though not de jure – cession of the province to an international force under a United Nations mandate. According to all available reports, in exactly one week – February 17th – Kosovo will declare its independence as an Albanian-dominated statelet under the aegis of the Western powers. Contrary to the benign apathy with which our media and policy communities will greet it, this is a malign development on several levels.

Rarely a day goes by without a whopping piece of hypocrisy on the part of the British Labour Party, for much of their political life is one big act of hypocrisy. Thus this weekend we have them facing both ways at once on matters of race.

We learn from an article in Le Figaro that Nicolas Sarkozy has come close to threatening his ministers with dismissal (after the upcoming municipal elections on March 9 and 16) either for having become discouraged over his poor ratings or for not coming to his defense.

A quote from The Independent on Sunday, 10 February 2008

Up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs. And official figures on forced marriages are the tip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest.

Jack Wheeler was one of the architects of the Reagan Doctrine that defeated Sovjet communism. At a readers' meeting of his web publication To The Point News I asked him for his views on the islamisation of Europe:

A quote from The Sunday Telegraph, 10 February 2008

Dr Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican Church, caused uproar last week with his suggestion that the incorporation of aspects of sharia into UK law might be "unavoidable", and could aid social cohesion. Cardinal [Cormac] Murphy-O'Connor, leader of the 4.5? million Catholics in England and Wales, begs to differ. He is adamant that such a move would only make segregation even more entrenched.

A quote from Scotland On Sunday, 10 February 2008

THE head of the Church of Scotland has come out in support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, describing the public's response to his comments on Sharia law as a "witch-hunt". The Right Reverend Sheilagh Kesting promised to stand by beleaguered Archbishop Rowan Williams, who was yesterday facing calls for him to resign after claiming the adoption of Islamic creeds in the UK appeared "unavoidable". […]