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God Bothers Constitution
It's become a truism in Europe's media that Americans are lurching nearer to God while Europeans have buried The Big Guy for good.
As usual, it doesn't tell the entire story. Much of central Europe is as God-fearing as the US Bible Belt, thanks to the role the Catholic and Eastern churches played in resisting communist oppression. It seems that the west, too, is experiencing something of a religious revival.
The Telegraph reports that a million Christians have signed a petition demanding that the EU constitution contain a reference to Europe's Christian heritage and traditions. Readers will remember that last year Poland led the campaign to include a Christianity clause in the treaty, surrendering it under French pressure as negotiations intensified.
The cynics among us suspected that Poland was brandishing the Bible as a negotiating tool and would eventually drop it once concessions were secured on voting rights and farm subsidies: The believers, however, refuse to give up the fight.
Doubtless inspired by the EU parliament's refusal to accept a devout Roman Catholic as justice commissioner, the petition's Italian organisers have won support from some MEPs and now hope to take their plea to governments.
They're going against the grain of EU establishment opinion here - one EU official said, rather unsportingly, "These Christians could at least have the good grace to accept that they lost the argument."
Many Christians would argue that for them, the argument hasn't even begun.
The Telegraph comments that many new votes have come from the Netherlands following the terrorist murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh. Support has also come from the Pope, who urged Europeans not to "cut themselves off from their birthright."
The most fierce opposition to the Christianity Clause comes from France. France's defence of secular nationhood has been admirably, if stubbornly consistent. However, in practice, claiming that all citizens are equally French hasn't really worked: Two reports released this week claim that France's policy of ignoring ethnic status has led to mass unemployment and vicious discrimination against its six million Muslims.
It's also led to increased radicalism and extremism in some mosques, but that's a different story.
France will fight the campaign to have Christianity highlighted in the constitution tooth and nail, not because of any particular concern for non-Christian Europeans, but because Paris sees the EU as being made in its image. God forbid.
Opposition to the clause has been muted in Britain, which is odd when you consider that the UK crows about its multicultural credentials perhaps more than any other European nation. This may be partly because Prime Minister Tony Blair is a committed Christian, but it is more likely to be because Britain made informal arrangements to support the pious central Europeans in order to win their backing for its looser interpretation of the constitution.
British officials now say that it is too late to change the treaty text - ministers signed the wretched document last month - but national governments could insert a "rider" into their translation of the document stressing the nation's Christian roots.
Fiddling with the constitution text? Whatever next?
MacShame's Grey Area
One man who will have no truck with national "interpretations" of the constitution is our own Denis MacShane, Britain's Minister for Europe.
In an opinion column for today's Telegraph, MacShame warns that there are no grey areas in EU membership: Britain is either in (and thus must accept all rulings agreed by Brussels) or out.
"..The argument that you can be in the EU and pass national legislation breaking treaty obligations just does not add up. Britain is in the EU. Or outside the EU. There is no third way," he writes, in a stirring article evoking Churchill and, erm, Margaret Thatcher.
"But no", as one wise Jedi Master once said, "there is another."
Someone forget to tell MacShame that rather than being Europe's rebellious wild child, Britain is actually kilometres ahead of its European "partners" in such small matters as obeying EU laws on contracting, to give one prominent (and expensive) example. And let's not forget the single currency's economic policy, which France and Germany ignored for years, claiming they were "too important" to be obliged to follow. They got off the hook on that one too.
So yes, you can be "in Europe" and obey every order passed on your behalf by shady Brussels officials. Or you can be "out" and risk the catastrophe we are told we would face if we left. Or, you could do what every other sensible European nation does: Talk up how marvellous the EU is, sign every treaty that lands on your table - and then merrily ignore the thing.
School For Hate
The EU's foreign policy chief has admitted he met with Palestinian terror group Hamas.
Javier Solana says the meetings took place some months ago, when a "breakthrough" appeared possible. He won't say which members of the terror group he met with and where - though he did say the meetings didn't last long.
The EU listed the entire Hamas organisation as a terrorist group last year: Previously, only the "military wing" was listed.
Solana's confession comes as Stephen Pollard links to a conference planned at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
The conference, entitled "Resisting Israeli Apartheid: Strategy and Principles" gathers together a loathsome set of terror apologists (and in some cases, like Tom Paulin, encouragers).
Speakers plan to talk on the "genocide" caused by settlers, and how academics must expose Israel, which they call the "Extra-judicial pariah state."
Other speakers include supporters of boycotts against Israeli products and academics. A British MP, the unspeakable Jeremy Corbyn, will deliver the summary and closing address.
As Stephen notes, the School does not appear to be funding the meeting, which is organised by its Palestine Society.
But surely its directors must be concerned that such an event, which seethes with hatred, will be taking place under its banner.
