Is this the New Winston Churchill?

[SG1_Lud]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

I don't know how you call inches in Spanish, but in Italian is "pollice" (thumb), because one inch is indeed the average width of a male thumb. That's the beauty of the imperial system, it's based on body proportions

We call it pulgadas, that comes from "pulgar" which is the word for "thumb"

[SG1_Lud]

I think we also tried to use another measures based in body proportions, but no agreement was reached on what was "average" LOL

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by SG1_Lud

I think we also tried to use another measures based in body proportions, but no agreement was reached on what was "average" LOL

HAHAHAHA!!!

[5./JG27.Farber]

It is indeed based on body maths. 1 yard is the distance from your finger tip of an arm streched out to one side to the tip of your nose.

[nearmiss]

Daniel Hannan...

You can't ignore Hannan. He gets to the point, and doesn't confuse with big words... and long speeches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WObI5m5CXVQ&feature=fvst

[Kupsised]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

Daniel Hannan...

You can't ignore Hannan. He gets to the point, and doesn't confuse with big words... and long speeches

Very to the point, perhaps a bit unecessarily over-dramatic though.

That aside, he's not doing his job. As a member of the European Parliament he's supposed to represent the EU, not the UK. That's the job of the people in the Council and the European Council. It's complicated, but members of the European Parliament don't have constituencies like in Westminster, instead they're supposed to represent people based on ideology (so a UK MEP could be repsenting people in France, Greece, Romania or whatever). Anyway, the point is, him standing up and making that speech (along with a lot of other speeches he's made) would be rather like an MP in Westminster standing up and saying 'Hey, this whole government thing isn't working, we should give it up.' That's not how it's supposed to work and people like him are just hindering things unecessarily.

EDIT: Just to be clear, it's perfectly fine if that's his opnion, but he should voice it in the Council, not the Parliament, because that is what the Council is for. It always concerns me that EU citizens don't really know what MEPs are supposed to do (i.e. represent the Union, not their member states), although that's probably largely the fault of the Union for not explaining it to anyone, but it's even more concerning if even he doesn't know what his own job is supposed to be.

[nearmiss]

This video is at European Parliament..

same meeting as thread starter posting.

[Kupsised]

That's the point I was making. It's kind of complicated to explain without going into too much depth, but the example of the United States is always a good one.

The Council and European Council are somwhat like the Senate, in which the people in them represent their member state (or state in the case of the US)

The Parliament is somewhat like the House of Representatives, in that they are not supposed to represent their specific member state or state, but the Union as a whole.

Therefore, it makes no sense for him to be discussing matters that relate to something that the United Kingdom has done because even though he is British in the European Parliament he does not represent the UK, but the European Union.

If he were in the Council or the European Council these kind of comments would make sense, but he isn't, and therefore they don't. It is sort of like having anarchists elected in parlaiment, it doesn't really serve a purpose. They are not elected to the parliament to choose how or what to govern, but to simply govern over what is given to them in the treaties. In his capacity as an MEP (same applies to Farage) there is no point in him expressing these opnions (although of course he is more than free to do so) and, at the same time, his opinions therefore don't matter to anyone important in the Union because it's not his job and he has no real effect on these things. Again, as I said, it just hinders the process by wasting everyone's time.

Anyway, I've spent quite a lot of time studying EU Law and the treaties of the EU and it's the fact that the EU doesn't make any effort to educate people about what it does and how that most annoys me about it. But at the same time, I still haven't found a way to explain it in a way that's very easily understandable either. I just wish that peoples reasoning for not supporting the EU was based on fact and not heresay perpetuated by the press, members of government and people like Farage or Hannan.

[arthursmedley]

Originally Posted by Kupsised

I still haven't found a way to explain it in a way that's very easily understandable either.

You're not kidding! Everything you have just posted about the rights and responsibilities of the EU parliament and it's members and it's relationship to other EU bodies and the council of ministers is totally incorrect.

[arthursmedley]

Originally Posted by Kupsised

EDIT: Just to be clear, it's perfectly fine if that's his opnion, but he should voice it in the Council, not the Parliament, because that is what the Council is for. It always concerns me that EU citizens don't really know what MEPs are supposed to do (i.e. represent the Union, not their member states), although that's probably largely the fault of the Union for not explaining it to anyone, but it's even more concerning if even he doesn't know what his own job is supposed to be.

Daniel Hannan is the elected member for the European parliamentary constituency of South-East England. He represents about 850,000 people! He is a member of the British Conservative party and stood for election under the Conservative party banner. His job to to represent them and speak for them in the EU parliament. Just as if he were an elected member of the British House of Commons the functions are the same. He was not elected to represnt the "EU" he is there to represent his constituents. Within the EU parliament he can say whatever he likes, that IS his job.

Plenty of people across Europe but perhaps not within the UK understand the function of the EU parliament. That is why Congo-Otto called it a "blatherer shop" earlier in this thread. The EU parliament is still a rather toothless Tiger. Although it has been gaining more powers recently it has no powers to introduce legislation on it's own. These powers are still reserved for the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers where the real power still lies.

Daniel Hannan cannot speak in the council of ministers as he is not a member. The council of ministers, when it meets, is made up from one representative from the cabinet of the government of the individual member states. Since 2009 you cannot be a member of the EU parliament and a member of a national parliament simultaneously. Therefore he cannot speak in the Council.
Nor can he speak in the Commission either as the Commissioners are appointed by the Council of Ministers although the EU parliament does have a veto over the appointment of the Commissioners these days.

I'm not sure what you mean by him "representing people in Fance, Greece, Romania or whatever". Are you confusing the function of the "blocks" within the EU parliament? Under the leadership of David Cameron our Conservative Party left the European Peoples Party - the main centre right block and joined the "GranPa was a war criminal" party of the rather further right movement. Daniel Hannan was instrumental in this rather bizarre move.