EU: Democracy without a demos - UK Column News - 12th December 2022

Sources: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-12th-december-2022
- Clip: Ryszard Legutko MEP (professor of philosophy) speech on the 70th anniversary of the Parliament
“This Parliament ignores reality and law, and shuns accountability.”
- David Scott commentary: This could equally be said of the devolved or Westminster parliaments in the UK
Footage shows some MEPs unable to process the dissent and treating the speech as an unexpected intermission in proceedings
Legutko's book, The Demon in Democracy, was one of those reviewed in Episode 4 of UK Column's podcast series A Dissident's Guide to the Constitution
- Angela Merkel’s admission (covered on Friday) that the Minsk Agreements of 2014–15 were playing for time
Putin response: I didn’t expect to hear this from Merkel—I thought she had been sincerely striving for a settlement
- Kremlin response: Dmitry Medvedev and Maria Zakharova stress that if long-range weapons are given to Ukraine, Russia will have recourse to new weapons and will regard the West as a direct party to the conflict
- EU: Council adopts €18 billion assistance to Ukraine
Mike Robinson analysis: These turn out in the small print to be loans, with the EU’s member states covering the bulk of servicing the interest as a grace period for Kiev
David Scott question: Is this being funded using resources robbed from the Russians?