#2
We embrace inclusivist policies toward Muslims, while those savages support the type of exclusivist policies that have cleansed minority religions out of the Muslim pig pens.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/05/2007 14:42 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Britain and France are essentially "indicator species" for the rest of Europe. In both nations, Muslim colonization has proceded to such an extent that only radical measures like mass deportations will suffice to save them from slow jihad. It is crucial that Multiculturalism and Islamic colonization become inextricably interlinked to stem what will otherwise be the death of Europe.
#9
At a minimum, Europe is doomed to expanding waves of violence and enormous internal displacements as the violence that is coming this summer prompts reactions from native Europeans who are fed up with muslim colonization. Britain in particular has to deal with the radicalizing pakistani population nesting in it's midst. 400,000 of them a year return to their mother country for an array or reasons, some of which are about further importation of muslims and muslim ideas. Look at the readical islamic intolerance sweeping pakistan as we speak, edging out the "moderate" paki women who have gotten even remotely liberated from the yoke of the 7th century wahabbist ideal of reproductive house servants.
The British are disarmed, making the ability to confront the gangs of paki youth that enforce their colonial areas all the more difficult. Mob violence is coming when the yobbo's finally have had enough, which is very close I think.
A cautionary tale for the Danes, the Swedes, the Dutch, the French and most of all, for us!
The changing of the guard in Europe's biggest countries is a chance for the Continent to renew itself. That's the good news. Here's the other kind: This fresh crop of leaders doesn't look well-placed to pull it off.
New political management will be in place by summer. Whomever the French elect tomorrow, the next President is going to be a younger face. Tony Blair plans to set a date next week to give the keys to 10 Downing Street to Chancellor Gordon Brown. Germany and Italy chose new leaders in the past 18 months. All are different, and Britain is the one economic standout, but this foursome sets the pace in Europe.
France is a good test case. Its socioeconomic troubles are nothing unusual for Old Europe--from stagnant growth to a debt-ridden welfare state to restive, underemployed young Muslims. But the political barriers to tackling these problems are highest in France. The presidential election, pitting center-right Nicolas Sarkozy against Socialist Ségolène Royal, might provide a mandate for change. According to an Ipsos survey on the day of the first round of voting April 22, the three main issues were unemployment, purchasing power and economic insecurity.
In the runoff, Ségo and Sarko have proposed very different solutions. Ms. Royal would bump up the minimum wage, already the highest in the OECD, by 20% and spend lavishly on social programs. She wants to make life easier for business, but the bulk of her program is old school Socialism. If Ms. Royal is the vision of a reassuring but untenable past, Mr. Sarkozy promises an uncertain, tumultuous, possibly brighter future. He mixes free markets and protectionism, yet emphasizes "action" and "rupture." The man wants to shake France out of its doldrums, the woman to softly nudge.
Even France may be ready at last to abandon statist orthodoxy. Mr. Sarkozy got 31% in the first round, the highest score for a right-wing candidate since 1974, and heads into the runoff with a nine-point lead in the polls. French voters are saying something must truly change. But will it?
Germany gives a half-reassuring answer. The "sick man of Europe" a few years back, a nickname today applied to France, the world's third-largest economy notched a recent high of 2.7% growth in 2006 and saw joblessness last month fall to its lowest level in five years. The previous government's limited welfare reforms helped, but the real credit goes to Germany's private sector.
Global competition, free capital flows and the single European currency have forced Deutschland AG to go around the politicians and get its act together. German companies restructured, outsourced aggressively and won wage concessions from unions. Now the world's biggest exporter can take better advantage of globalization. Last year, exports grew 13% and investment 8%, driving the revival, since consumption was up only 0.9%. Likewise in Italy, the private sector bypassed a shambolic state to pull the country out of recession; look at the turnaround at Fiat.
Europe's last watershed election was Margaret Thatcher's in 1979. Thanks to her and the Reagan Revolution, as well as globalization, politicians today matter less. In spite of Mr. Brown's penchant for stealth taxes and regulations, New Labour's commitment to leave Thatcherite reforms in place means that investors have little to fear from the change of leadership in an economically vibrant Britain. The Nordics, Ireland and Spain are all doing well after opening up their economies in recent years.
Alas, in the "Big Three" the pols have a central role to play--mainly to undo the policy mistakes of the past. Whether for lack of conviction or political will, they're falling short. Content with high approval ratings, Chancellor Angela Merkel has shelved her promises of flat taxes, the easing of firing restrictions and an overhaul of the health system. Her one big move was a three-point increase in the VAT this year, showing that Continental politicians can still do plenty of damage. Retail sales are down 9% in the first quarter. Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi pushed through some deregulation but also a big tax increase.
France's next President inherits an arguably tougher situation. Exports and market share abroad are falling and the French outsource less than Germans or Italians. France lags Germany on labor and welfare liberalization, which along with regulation and high taxes stifles innovation and economic growth. Capital and skilled workers are moving out of France.
The campaign may have culminated in a clear left-right split, but with little room for free-market ideas. In a telling moment in Wednesday night's presidential debate, Mr. Sarkozy declared in his concluding statement that his priority was "to protect France from delocalisation," or outsourcing. He didn't provide details along the lines of Ms. Royal's tax on companies that move operations overseas. In France, both left and right have pushed statism as well as market reforms when convenient, but neither has yet embraced anything even resembling a Thatcherite agenda.
Until a political consensus emerges in the Big Three that competition is the surest route to job creation, lower prices and higher wages, don't hold your breath for a genuine European economic renaissance.
#2
At some point old Europe will not be able to afford the welfare state. Those that are working will become disenchanted with supporting those who want to destroy the country through bombings, car burnings, killings...
#3
A FREEREPUBLIC Poster has described or belabeled the French elex as a contest between the FRENCH LEFT versus THE FRENCH FAR/ULTRA-LEFT, NOT FRENCH LEFT vz FRENCH RIGHT, wid serious copycat = parallel implications/similarities for America in 2008.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
