Ursula Von Der Leyen - addressing the Oireachtas yesterday. Opinions on her speech?

Ireland is a nodding dog to the EU.

It matters not whether FG or FF or even SF are in power, the trajectory will always remain the same, and will always align with the interests of the EU first, then Ireland second.

This country prides itself on attaining independence from the UK, yet it only took 50-years for us to slavishly hand that independence to the European Union.

Those at the core of the EU, which includes Ursula Von Der Leyen, cannot be removed by a public vote or public election. She is appointed.

That's the very opposite of "a group of nations working together".

And you're right that "Farage-loving politics" has no traction in Ireland because, as I already said earlier in this thread, Ireland is a supine country; a peripheral irrelevance at the fringe of the EU.

We do as we are told, including to vote again on referenda because we chose the wrong option. What was that about "a group of nations working together" again? Oh yeah, turns out not to be exactly as you have portrayed it to be.

And just to polish off my point, here is a quote from the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker:

"A group of nations working together" you said. Well even Mr Juncker disagrees with you.

Ireland was wielded as a political sledgehammer by the EU to cudgel the newly anathematised, but independent United Kingdom.

Whilst I admire your attempt to throw confetti on everything the EU does and says, there comes a point when very cold water needs to be thrown atop the oft-repeated spiel that everything the EU does is in its member states' interests.

Because it's false; a manufactured fiction.

What the EU does or says is primarily about conserving power and influence at the core, of those who are immune to the public vote. In fact, it's only when a politician loses an election that they become prime meat to be appointed to the EU Commission; the only body that proposes legislation that the EU parliament (the elected chamber) cannot veto.

Ursula von der Leyen is the latest ghoul to occupy the role of EU Commission President. The previous incarnation was a Luxembourgish alcoholic involved in tax avoidance schemes.

The sooner this ghastly structure crumbles, the better for the electorates of each member state.

Freedom of movement has been a disaster for the home country (for example, Lithuania and Poland) as it has been for the target country.

Open borders only offend rich, successful countries.

Roaming charges? Is that seriously still bandied about as some miraculous cure from the EU?

Christ, that's not much...