Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-112"
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"en.20031008.10.3-112"2
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"Mr President, the way today’s debate has been organised would be laughable if it were not such an expensive business. First it was delayed, then, with us all here, it was delayed for another hour without any explanation being given, and the interpreters will be along later. This is where I agree entirely with Mr Linkohr, who spoke before me, that one learns things as one gets older. I may well not have had much to say in favour of Friedrich von Hayek in my books and other works, but what I see in this place from one day to another is such a waste of money – not yours, not Parliament’s, but the taxpayer’s – that I have come to think of the whole thing as a hypocritical farce. By way of contrast, I would like to know whether we would organise debates in their current form if it were your money!
That also means – and this brings me to what I wanted to talk about – that I was originally only meant to have one minute, but, the way things are organised, I still have one, so please do not regard this minute as taking us off the subject. Now for my minute on space travel.
Are we not falling into the very trap of saying that if something makes sense in principle – be it this House or the peaceful use of space travel – then it actually works? It does not actually work out like that. If we look at the report, at the second part of item 17, and at item 18, then what is this dual use? How are the two kept separate? Where can I, as a citizen, know what I am now actually getting in return for my tax, and where I am getting it? Do we not notice that, without military support, we might not get many of the things that would make sense in civilian terms? How, then, are the two to be kept apart? Is this not where we ourselves are being sucked into a new kind of military-industrial complex? Are we in this House not the very people who are up in arms when a populist like Haider or Schwarzenegger suddenly wins elections?
What we urgently need, I believe, is transparency – in space travel and here in this House. Thank you for allowing me the chance to speak for two minutes."@en1
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