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Blog Dennis de Jong

24 August 2014

Basic goods V - Getting out of the rat race

Following their listing of basic goods, the things people actually need, in their book How much is enough? the Skidelskys made concrete proposals as to how to escape the rat race of ‘more, more, more’. In this last blog on this subject the question of what we can do about this as the SP’s European Parliament group takes centre stage. Another Europe is possible, but it will require an end to the domination of Eurocrats and of major corporations.

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17 August 2014

Basic goods (IV) – Free Time

The Skidelskys, in their book How much is enough?, correctly list free time as a basic good. In their critique of the way in which the market has to a large degree taken over our lives, the Skidelskys argue that we should have more free time, defined as time that one can spend on what gives you satisfaction – non-material satisfaction – and serves no other purpose. This form of free time has become ever scarcer over the last few years. In my view, this is no coincidence.

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10 August 2014

Basic goods (III) – Security

Robert Skidelsky, photo Chris Boland, CC

In each part of this series of ‘summer blogs’, one of the basic goods identified by the Skidelskys in their book How much is enough? takes centre stage. Instead of a society in which everything is determined by the market and by an everlasting hunger for more money and more consumer goods, the Skidelskys search for a different kind of society, one which revolves around truly essential things. Having dealt with health, respect and friendship, this time I will look at ‘security’.

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3 August 2014

How much is enough: On basic goods (II)

The father and son team of Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky, in their book How Much is Enough? criticised the way in which present society aims only at economic growth. Our values are increasingly economic values, in which profit maximisation takes pole position, even in public institutions. They argue against this and list a number of basic goods, things you really must have. After writing last week on health as a basic good, I will this week discuss ‘respect and friendship’.

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27 July 2014

How much is enough? On basic goods (I)

I will be continuing my weekly blogs during the next few weeks, but with the European Parliament in recess, these will appear rather different to the normal run. The next five weekly blogs will be devoted to the book by the father and son team of Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky, How Much is Enough? The book is a direct attack on the way in which we bound ahead towards ever more economic growth, without this leading to more wellbeing. The  Skidelskys define seven basic goods, necessities which we really must have. In each of these weekly blogs I will go into one or more of these basic goods and discuss what the implications of European Union policies are for each of these. Another world is possible, in Europe, too.

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13 July 2014

Almost holiday time, so watch out for euro-unrest

Two more weeks and then the European Parliament goes into recess. In the last few years, during the recess, there has often been unrest surrounding the euro. The same could happen again this year. The crisis at the Portuguese bank Espirito Santo appears to be the first sign. As we have been saying for years in the SP, the apparent calm around the euro is deceptive. A great deal is still brewing. Whatever else, I won’t be straying far from mobile phone and Internet during the summer recess.

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6 July 2014

Which parliamentary committees really matter?

The media are happy: Dutch MEPs will be heavily represented on important committees in the European Parliament. These include in particular the Economic Committee, which five Dutch Members will sit on. In my view this is a miscalculation: this committee has in recent years in short order approved new laws restraining speculative behaviour by financial institutions. These laws were in our opinion unsatisfactory, but the fact remains that in this matter the legislative process is almost complete, which means in a committee of this nature one will principally be debating motions on policy. The SP has consciously chosen trade and the internal market as the sharp end: my prediction is that it is in precisely these areas that there will be much to do in the coming period.

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29 June 2014

SP European Parliament Group sets priorities - trade, internal market, and budgetary control

Next week will see the first Strasbourg plenary with the newly elected MEPs. This means that we will find out once and for all who will sit in which parliamentary committee. Negotiations over this within the United European Left, the group in which the SP participates, went well. Our new Member Anne-Marie Mineur will tackle international trade while I will be able to continue on the internal market and budgetary control committees. An excellent start to a new parliamentary term.

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22 June 2014

European Parliament must pay more attention to questions of integrity

Earlier this month I was approached by the major anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International, with a request to establish ‘Intergroup’ – an all-party group of MEPs who share an interest in a particular issue. Naturally, I reacted positively. In the last few years I’ve built up an informal network, which would now have to be formalised. The first steps have been taken: numerous MEPs reacted with enthusiasm to my proposal. If the initiative is successful, we will have another pressure group to counter corruption and nepotism.

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15 June 2014

How EU-critical is the European Parliament Left Group?

Slowly but surely negotiations between the various political groups and the individual national parties are reaching their conclusion and it is becoming clear how big each group will be. Justifiably enough, attention is focused on the groups that, on the one hand, Dutch far right leader Geert Wilders, and on the other the British party UKIP are looking to form. There are, however, other EU-critical voices in the EP anxious to distance themselves from the extreme right: the Conservatives on the right and, on the left, the group to which the SP belongs, the United European Left/Nordic Green Left (known, by an acronym which mixes French and English, as the GUE/NGL). Following the elections, it turns out that a much larger proportion of GUE/NGL MEPs belong to EU-critical parties than was the case beforehand. This is certainly going to make a difference in the years to come.

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