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The summit of antagonism
Leaders ignore political crisis IT WAS always too much to hope that the European Union's crisis summit, following so soon after the shock of the French and Dutch voters' rejection of the constitution, would end on a harmonious note.
Emotions are still too raw, and too many European leaders are still in denial, for immediate progress to be made on charting the way forward for the Union.
Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder both appear convinced that the constitution can still be a part of Europe's future, while summit chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, says that the constitution is "perfect" and that he does not really believe it has been rejected at all.
It is, of course, deeply ironic that a constitution devised with the stated aim of bringing the EU closer to its people should now be regarded as a reason for ignoring the clearly expresssed democratic wishes of those people. It demonstrates, however, that there is a very difficult task ahead for those more far-sighted politicians who realise that Europe has to leave its constitution behind.
This situation also explains the desire of Mr Chirac to focus the summit on the budget, and in particular Britain's rebate, to ignore the political crisis in favour of a slightly more manageable economic one and to put Britain in the dock rather than the problems caused by France and its voters.
Yet, in reality, the two problems are closely interlinked. There is an obvious budgetary crisis in Brussels, with the EU's auditors having been unable to approve the accounts for the past decade because of evidence of fraud and mismanagement. But this is not caused by the British rebate.
This is why Tony Blair is right to call for a more wide-ranging budgetary review, in which Britain's rebate is examined along with everything else, notably the far more damaging problem of the unjust and inefficient Common Agricultural Policy which benefits France's powerful farming lobby but which penalises far too many others, notably producers and would-be exporters in the Third World. Any review of the budget, however, must be part of an even more wide-ranging political review, one which recognises that the notion of ever closer centralisation envisaged in the constitution has been rejected and which charts a new future for the EU, one in which members are allowed the freedom to develop as they wish and the Union can expand as a much looser collection of nation-states.
A new Archbishop
Time to welcome John Sentamu
THE appointment of John Sentamu as Archbishop of York is an exciting one. That this country is to have its first black Archbishop is as welcome as the experience and wisdom that the former Ugandan barrister will bring to his new role.
The present Bishop of Birmingham promises to be the right person for this demanding job at precisely the right time. A spirited as well as a spiritual man, he has a record of reaching out to the secular world and of demonstrating through his ministry the relevance of the Church to 21st-century British society.
On the great controversies of Anglicanism, the issues of women priests and gay clergy, Bishop John has made it clear that he backs the decisions of the Church and has shown a marked reluctance to become embroiled in these internal rows, perhaps because he knows only too well that there are far greater priorities . Not afraid of controversy, he has been ready to criticise the establishment when he believes that criticism is necessary. And on issues such as racism and violent crime, he has been particularly outspoken, demonstrating real courage and leadership.
These qualities will be needed in abundance in his new role. For among the splendour of the ceremonial trappings of York, it is easily forgotten that the Archbishop bears pastoral responsibility for such places as Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield – large, multi-racial cities in which the experience that Bishop John has gained in Birmingham and in his earlier life as persecuted critic of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, will be invaluable.
The Church has made a bold and visionary appointment and Yorkshire should welcome its new Archbishop accordingly.
A taxing process
Revenue-raising pretext
UNDER the discredited rating system, householders who improved their homes paid more because they had, increased the hypothetical rent if the property were let. That ceased to be the case under the Community Charge system.
Consequently, many millions of householders who blithely carried out improvements which were seen to be good investments while saving the cost and trouble of selling up and moving to somewhere better. All that, however, will change thanks to the revaluation exercise, being carried out for the highly-suspect reason that the original banding system has been made obsolete by soaring property values.
The process – costing an estimated 108m of the public's money – means that individual homes can now be individually banded, with improvements carried out by their owners being taken into account. Revaluation is, of course, just a device to squeeze more money out of the tax payers so that Mr Brown can keep his shop-window pledge not to raise income tax. Instead of reforming the whole discredited system, the Government is intent on enhancing its value as a milch cow.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
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