mr president i am delighted that this house is cognisant of white russia's slide into autocracy
the regime in belarus represents a system of government that this continent ought to have put behind itself twenty years ago
nonetheless i hope that this motion might prompt among some colleagues a measure of self-analysis
look at it from the point of view of a former soviet apparatchik analysing the european union
i put it to you that he might find a few things that would make him feel rather at home
he would see that we are governed not by an elected president or an elected system but by a twenty-seven member politburo called the european commission he would look and see this rubber-stamp parliament that would make him feel a little nostalgic he would see the series of five-year plans by which we administer our affairs he would even see the fleet of special limousines and even special reserve shops for employees of the system and members of the nomenklatura
above all he would see what engels called the doctrine of false consciousness that when people vote they do not understand their true interest and it is for us to impose a better system on them
i am reminded of that terrifying closing scene of orwell's animal farm where the animals look from man to pig and pig to man and find that they cannot tell which is which
