Photos of freedom of speech rally 26 March

A blogger has camera
Here are pictures from today's Free Speech gathering in London. which was yesterday, today.
the link below is where you can see some photos of the anti cartoon protest with comments
http://nordish.net/blog/?p=12
compare and contrast but which one stirs the passions?

hello

This is all very nice, dont you think?

Elegant President

Yesterday on a whim I consulted the LSE website http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublicLecturesAndEvents/Default.htm
to discover that Valerie Giscard d'Estaing would be speaking.
Not having a ticket I went along quite early to see if I could get a return - the event was free of charge and open to all but you need a ticket. Anyway the queue was quite long and in the end only the first couple of people got in but... the event was also being shown by video link in another lecture theatre across the way. First time I have attended something like that. It was interesting.
This is the scene when I arrived.

There's a large screen - We're in the East Building Lecture theatre looking at the lecture theatre in the Old Building across the way.
Both theatres were full.Then Giscard d'Estaing arrived with his host from the LSE. Giscard is seated at the desk and the photographer is not in the same theatre as me.

The title of the lecture was The Political Future of Europe. Giscard was President of France in 1974 and is now 80 years old. He is debonair and spoke with a good command of English.

Here are my notes:

He was chosen as President of the Convention on the Future of Europe in 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1712728.stm

Recently made a member of L'Académie française

When you are a member of the AF you become an immortal. A Belgian comic said to me
"to be an immortal you have to have a good constitution".
I was not here, in this school, before. From hearsay, family hearsay, I understand the LSE is one of the best, probably the best, in Europe .
I am speaking to you not as a Frenchman but as a European. This will no doubt arouse greater prejudice.

There may be all sorts of droughts and shortages, floods etc. but Europe will never suffer from a lack of speeches.
These speeches fall into two groups
1) What the goals really are or should be
2) Why these goals are impossible.

The same people usually start in one group and then with a suitable gap in time move to the other.
Let us go back to see the original goal to "put an end to bloody folly of the wars." This has been achieved. So now is needed a new rational for the union.
Adjust to the scale of a new world. When we are divided we are too small.
The US talks of nation building we are engaged in continent buiding. It is not a short term process. It will take decades, generations, not years or six-month periods like the EU presidency.
There are 2 principal actors
Governments and people.
Do people in Britain realise that 14 out of 25 countries have ratified the EU constitution.
People complain of areas of concern on which the EU has no competence i.e. employment.
The ultimate goal is to give the EU the framework to carry out policies at the European level.
I will advise students to go back to the text, May 9, 1950 - contrary to what Blair said recently it is not a question of co-operation between sovereign nations but working out how to find a structure for implementation of policy at the European level.
No one is forced to stay in the EU
No one is forced to join the EU
The "No" vote in France was a mistake which will have to be rectified.
Sophism:
EU has defective institutions which produce bad results
People don't like Europe
We need to make Europe loved so that people will agree to improve it.
But without improvement how will the people love.
James Madison said a constituion is not designed to win a debate but to allow for all our debates.
The EUs powers are attributed ones, granted unanimously by national governments. This includes the principles of subsidiarity and proportiionality.
Don't feel less British, French, Danish etc. but feel more European. Have confidence remain far from the sniggers of the sceptics. That way will bring greatness into your lives.
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