Flag, caretaker, arse, boot

It sort of does and it sort of doesn't. The real power behind the
throne are still the appointed EU Commissioners who, as far as I can
make out, are a wholly unrepresentative meld of all the bad points of
the House of Lords, the French Civil Service, the Sicilian Mafia and the
Vatican Investment Corporation, with extra added unaccountability and
better job security.

 

Sort of - the MEPs are elected but the council of ministers are
appointed by the national parliaments for the job. They may have to go
through some selection process once they get to the EU parliament but I
can't remember.

The parliament itself doesn't have a great deal of power - they can lay
down guidelines for spending and they approve final budgets, they
control foreign policy and security and they can exert some control
over the EU Commission but they don't have anywhere near the power that
the UK parliament does (in the UK).

The EU Council is the bunch of minister nominated by each member state
- they also have input into the budget process and security policy.
They can also issue legislation presented to them by the Commission.

The EU Commission is the executive body - the member are nominated by
the EU council (and must be from EU member states but don't need to be
members of the EU parliament). They have the power to draw up
legislation, to set preliminary budgets to present to parliament and
council, to initiate dialogue with external entities and to manage
Econonic and Monetary Union. They also have the power to monitor
compliance with EU law.
They are the guys with the big sticks.

So of these 3 bodies only 1 is directy elected - and it has the
least powers of all the 3.

The two bodies that *are* powerful are made up of people who have been
elected to the parliament in their home countries (and so I suppose
could be called elected) but are nominated to be in-post by the home
countries - and when euro-sceptics like Maggie were in power were
generally filled by people who had the brief to make life as difficult
as possible for johnny-foreigner..

I suspect that for a working EU system to evolve the three bodies would
need to distill down to two as quite a few of the functions have
considerable overlap and it takes forever for anything to get done.

Phil.

 

Mine is "intercepting". The context being a third party enquiring
about when our web service client is going to be "intercepting" with
the web service that they are developing.

 

Well, he shouldn't be apparently.

The Union flag should be flown on the following dates :

http://www.culture.gov.uk/flagflying/dates.htm

http://www.culture.gov.uk/flagflying/faqs.htm#When

http://www.culture.gov.uk/flagflying/rules.htm

Weird.

 

What a load of old bollocks.

 

Is everybody assuming the caretaker: a) is British, b) GAF...??

 

.... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power
derives from a mandate from the masses...

 

Actually, neither parliament nor the Admiralty can come to agreement on
that one. It certainly *is* a Union Jack when flown from the jack
staff, but what it is, when it isn't, is, well, not very clear.

 

Edward's missus, innit?

 

Oi. You. NO!

 

Indeed. Hangings too good for him.

Phil.

 

According to that list the Queen's getting married on the 20th November.

Well - I suppose if you can dictate how many birthdays you can have a year
then a little polyandry is never out of the question.

 

More simple but: have - of. Wakes up the Freddy Krueger in me, that does.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Phil Launchbury

Ooh, I dunno, first offence, he might get away with crucifixion.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

The countess of Wessex's husband, ytc.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

<rolls eyes>

The Countess of Wessex's husband, you numpty.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

*ginge*

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

What was the number for the Inquisition again? I might have to discard
my morals on this one..

Phil

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Krusty

Well, what little hair he has might be, I'll grant you that.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Crucifixion's a dod"£$%^&!!!!NO CARRIER