Airstrip One

Liberalism and the EU redux

I'm not sure whether it is simply the incapacity of most English people to read foreign language press, or simply something in the water, but the devotion of civil libertarians to the European Union is becoming more and more perplexing.

Now Belgium looks as if it may ban its main opposition party. One of the more sinister parts of this is that the banning need be only administrative as all party funding is by the state (private funding seems to be illegal) and they only need (politicised) judges to rule that a party is undemocratic and the plug can be pulled. Now which country is moving to state funding of political parties and judges friendly to the regime (or to Cherie Blair's legal arguments)?