One could wonder where the UK finds its politicians, seeing the amount of “bright” people amongst them.
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UK’s Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, compared the EU to the Soviet Union in a speech at the Tory conference, the 30th September. Well, if the European Union is the Soviet Union, then what is the UK, a country that is constantly policing what citizens say and do, and spy on them to the point that the spying has been deemed illegal by the European Court of Human Rights?
Because yes, whenever somebody says something negative about the European Union, there aren’t cops or secret agents coming and rounding up said person and throwing them in a concentration/labour camp. Instead, that person is even allowed to receive EU funds, as we can see from Eurosceptics in the European Parliament who are, small reminder, robbing European citizens for their own gain, as proven multiple times.
People seem to love to twist history and how things are. The EU is easily the freest place in the world, with the highest quality of life, and some people coming from more restrictive places seem unhappy about that. Because, oh, how scary, the EU is banning memes (spoiler: they’re not, you’ve been lied to by American corporations who do not want to enforce copyright and want to continue to profit from the work of artists), the EU is doing this and that, but at least the EU is not banning random types of porn, like the UK did a few years ago, the EU is not spying on each and every citizen like the UK is, the EU is not throwing people in prison for badmouthing specific groups of people, contrary to the UK, and the list goes on. So, if anything, the “Soviet Union” in this case, shouldn’t it be the UK?
And, finally, let’s not forget that the EU does not have real direct power. It doesn’t have a police force, an army, etc, under its direct control, even if some like to twist the truth and cry “The EU wants an army! Oh no!”, no, they want to facilitate cooperation between European armies for faster deployment in case of need.
The other day, the UK was crying and demanding respect after Tusk’s “cherry picking” comment, but comparing the EU to the Soviet Union is leagues ahead of such a small and trivial comment. Comparing the EU to the Soviet Union is insulting the memory of the millions of people who died during the Soviet Union era, the millions of people who lived in poverty due to the poor decisions Soviet rulers made, the millions of people who suffered until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and who, close to 30 years later, are still feeling its effects, with ex-Soviet Union countries still poor compared to the West.
Various EU leaders complained about the association, asking for an apology from the Foreign Minister. Some other people demanded the demission of Hunt.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, former Polish prime minister, also talked about the event at a press event in Brussels, after meeting with the Irish prime minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar, the 4th of September. Tusk said:
“Comparing the European Union to the Soviet Union is as unwise as it is insulting. The Soviet Union was about prisons and gulags, borders and walls, violence against citizens and neighbours. The European Union is about freedom and human rights, prosperity and peace, life without fear, it is about democracy and pluralism; a continent without internal borders or walls. As the President of the European Council and someone who spent half of my life in the Soviet Bloc, I know what I’m talking about.”
The full press release is available here.
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