Ann Widdecombe's EU slavery remarks branded as 'disgusting'

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Ann Widdecombe's EU slavery remarks branded as 'disgusting'

By Jennifer Scott
BBC political reporter

4 July 2019

Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe has been criticised for comparing the UK leaving the EU to "slaves" rising up "against their owners".

She made the remarks during her maiden speech in the European Parliament on Thursday, which critics branded "disgusting" and "offensive".

Labour MP David Lammy described her words as "ahistorical".

But Ms Widdecombe told the BBC's Newsnight people had interpreted her speech in a "melodramatic fashion".

The former Conservative MP and shadow home secretary was one of 29 Brexit Party candidates who won European Parliament seats in May.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48869520

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Source: The Guardian

Ann Widdecombe likens Brexit to emancipation of slaves

Widdecombe becomes first Brexit party MEP to speak in new European parliament

Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Thu 4 Jul 2019 13.04 BST Last modified on Thu 4 Jul 2019 17.39 BST

The former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe has likened the UK’s departure from the EU to the emancipation of slaves, as she became the first Brexit party MEP to speak in the new European parliament.

With her leader, Nigel Farage, on her right, Widdecombe said the recent negotiations among the EU’s heads of state and government over the leadership of the bloc’s institutions confirmed the need for Britain to leave.

“It’s not democratic at all and that is just one of many reasons why Britain is right to be leaving this place, hopefully on Halloween,” Widdecombe told a plenary session of the European parliament in Strasbourg. “If that’s this place’s idea of democracy that’s a serious betrayal of every country represented here.”

Widdecombe, who was criticised this month for claiming science might “produce an answer” to being gay, said the UK’s departure from the EU equated to a liberation.

She said: “There is a pattern consistent throughout history of oppressed people turning on their oppressors, slaves against their owners, the peasantry against the feudal barons, colonies against empires, and that is why Britain is leaving … It doesn’t matter which language you use, we are leaving and we are pleased to be going. Nous allons [sic], wir gehen, we are off!”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/04/ann-widdecombe-likens-brexit-to-emancipation-of-slaves

[mwooldri]

1. Ann Widdecombe had a serious point.

Imagine if the 50 governors of the USA got together and selected the next president of the United States. That's how the leadership of Europe is decided. The EU commissioners are appointed by each member state, an analogy would be if each state got to pick one member of the US President's cabinet.

And how policy is decided is crazy. Imagine if the US government administration made up a law, and Congress could only say "yay" or "nay" to that new proposed rule/law? And Congress couldn't create new legislation, always had to come from the executive branch first...

I like the idea of Europe and yes there needs to be an EU with the UK in it, but the European Union set up as it is isn't as democratic as I would like it to be.

[Denzil_DC]

2. There is an immense and ugly irony in Widdecombe ranting about lack of democracy

in an assembly where she and her "largest party" delegation in the EU wouldn't be sitting if not for the PR voting system that put her and the baying gaggle of shake-the-tree wingnuts clustered around Farage in their seats, having been selected as list members (not directly elected) by Farage and the cabal around him with no pretense of party democracy or public consultation, and with few of the population having any idea who they'd be putting in position in return for their votes, let alone what they stand for beyond Brexit.

The Brexit Party is a limited company. There is no election system for selecting or deposing its leader nor its candidates, nor any forum for policy input from its paid-up supporters - "Ta for the cash, see you later, sucker." And as for its funding and transparency, that's a very serious point indeed.

As for the EU's system, maybe you and she should take a look at how policy is formulated and laws passed in the UK Parliament, especially in the last few years.

As for imagining: we're about to enjoy the rule of our second recent Prime Minister a minuscule proportion of the population have voted for (assuming the Queen goes along with it, of course), and I can't recall the last public election for our civil service, the influential political special advisers and lobbyists clustered around the main parties' leaders, nor members of the House of Lords, for instance. Imagine that ... And this without going into the growing democratic deficit between Westminster and the UK's other assemblies.

Is the EU flawed? Hell, yes. But there's that old saying about when you point at someone or something, three fingers are pointing back at you. Motes and beams and all that.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Not sure that would be much less democratic than the Electoral College system, but I see your point

But that's no excuse for her comparing it with slavery. Which was one of the most horrible things in history.

And still goes on in many places -even sometimes the UK. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-48881327?fbclid=IwAR3AVfkjOEfUQ_fzRHybQW95VVd-Viy2oP_5q_JTCHf3Xc4BeAGzb6XIWbk