The Council of Europe isn’t the European Union. You know, different name and all that. There’s an amusing part to this, the basic humans rights stuff comes from that Council, the European Court of Human Rights for example is not an EU institution, it’s a Council one. So, all that bleating about Brexit destroying our human rights is dangly bits, stuff and nonsense. There’s also an unamusing part to it, the Council of Europe is even less democratic than the EU which is going some for a system of governance.
It’s also, as the EU is, vilely corrupt:
Several members of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly broke the body’s rules on ethics and are “strongly suspected” of corruption, according an internal inquiry.
The report, revealed on Sunday, ends a 10-month investigation into cash-for-votes allegations focused on Azerbaijan, which have rocked the Strasbourg-based international organisation.
The council, one of Europe’s oldest human rights organisations, was created in 1949 to safeguard democracy and the rule of law, it long predates the European Union and has 47 member states. Its parliamentary assembly (Pace) is composed of politicians from member countries’ national parliaments.
The allegation is that a not nice government sent money to not nice politicians in order that one group of not nice didn’t criticise the other group of not nice. And really, who is surprised at that?
For who makes up this Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe -PACE? Here’s the UK’s representation. Well, yes, we’re going to get a lot done with them, aren’t we? It’s true, sending them off to have a nice lunch over there means they’ll do less damage here but that’s still not quite the way to be running a continent, is it?
But it gets worse than this. There are 47 member countries of this grouping. Including, as here, Azerbaijan. You didn’t know that you’re ruled, in part at least, by a selection of whoever won the last “elections” in Azerbaijan? That your human rights are guarded by a judge (yes, the ECHR judges are drawn from Council of Europe members) appointed by the government of Azerbaijan? One from Russia too? As far as I can recall Belarus is the only one bad enough that they don’t get to partially rule us.
At which point perhaps we should be leaving this layer of the international bureaucratariat as well as the EU, eh?
” Here’s the UK’s representation. ” Jeebus! How’d those natural parasites in The LimpDims manage to get themselves left behind when that gravy-train left the station? Wonders will never cease.