Hi Jim,

>>>I was wondering the same, but then I thought to myself... if their politicians are doing the same crappy "job" that ours are doing, I'd reject anything they proposed.

>>>So I've concluded that their politicians are as useless as ours (Canada).

>>I guess the question then becomes what are they [the leaders] trying to accomplish by forming EU?
>>I don't think that's been well defined. Maybe the general public in Europe is not well informed, which is typical with the average Americans as well.
>
>I think it's far more basic than that.
>I think the politicians are living in their own world and worrying about feathering their own beds. They "worry" about things highly esoteric while average Joe/Josephine has real problems making ends meet, working longer hours, worrying about their jobs, losing benefits, losing pensions and generally losing more and more ground. The gains of the last 20-30 years have been all but wiped out and we're heading fast to 1930 working/class conditions.

I generally don't think people think that our politicians are overpayed. Our prime minister only earns about 300.000 euros a year, and other ministers about 150.000 euros. Though this still alot to Joe Average, it is way less those people could earn elsewhere. If you really want to earn money going into politics does not make you extrodanry rich. Our administration has even frozen the wages for themselves this year.

OTOH, you're right. They tend to show to have very little understanding about how Joe average lives, their problems and wishes and are driven by idealogy or religion without having the needed feedback from the real world.

>Surely the politicians put it to a referendum expecting that it would carry.

They would have been stupid to do it if they thought otherwise. Which only indicates just how out-of-touch they are.

Not quite true in our case. The referendum was forced in negotiation of the forming of our administrations by one party (D66) (our first chamber, consist out of 3 parties). Our administration in fact had no choice to do otherwise, though they feared the outcome.


Walter,