Speeches

Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order based on Rule 144, which provides that matters concerning breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of Annex IV. Now, Annex IV, paragraph 2, states that ‘motions for resolutions shall not exceed 500 words’. The wording in the annex is clear and prescriptive: shall means shall. Yet most resolutions tabled consistently exceed the word limit, and not by a small margin. The joint motions for resolutions are even worse. The ID Group therefore requests that the Rules of Procedure be respected and that motions for resolutions that exceed the word count be deemed inadmissible. For this part session, of all the motions tabled, only three comply with the Rules of Procedure, namely the ID’s own motion on Nicaragua and both the ECR’s and the EPP’s motions on Uganda and Tanzania. We therefore request that all other motions for resolution be deemed inadmissible, and we only proceed to vote on those three.

Mr President! In March of this year, Bulgarian ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was arrested on suspicion of corruption. 24 hours later, he was a free man again. The prosecutor's office and the courts confirmed that the evidence was insufficient. So far, so good. Then Manfred Weber and his EPP would indeed be right for the first and perhaps last time. It is also true that according to the Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International Bulgaria is the most corrupt EU member state. Nevertheless, this Parliament does not want to do anything against Bulgaria – as we see here in the emptiness of the Chamber – unlike Poland and Hungary, which are each subject to so-called rule of law procedures under Article 7. The reason is obvious. Bulgaria may be corrupt, but its new government is strictly on the EU course, adhering to the insane climate and pro-migration agenda, unlike Hungary and Poland, which represent the interests of their own people and prefer to protect the economy rather than climb like Sisyphos climate summit. Conclusion: In the EU, only those who oppose the rule of law are considered enemies of the rule of law. Those who are politically compliant will also remain impunity. Whether accidentally or intentionally, I have probably one minute more than planned. But actually everything is said. Perhaps it should be noted that a lot – actually everything – has to change here, and then it goes uphill again.

Madam President, Commission President, we expected a speech on the State of the Union and got one on Ukraine, the blessings of public debt, the green religion and the fantasy economy. Tatsächlich herrscht in der EU Stagflation mit über 9 % Inflation und dem niedrigsten Wachstum der entwickelten Welt. Für Deutschland erwartet das IFO—Institut nun Rezession und eine Inflationsrate von zeitweise über 10 %. Die Schweiz indes hat 3,5 % Inflation und 2,6 % reales Wachstum. Das zeigt: Hyperinflation ist vermeidbar und solides Wachstum in Europa noch möglich. Unsere Stagflation ist also nicht Folge von COVID oder Ukrainekrieg, sondern hausgemacht durch undurchdachte Sanktionen und einen Green Deal, der Energie unbezahlbar macht und null Einfluss auf das Weltklima hat. Jetzt soll der EU-Migrationspakt noch dutzende Millionen Migranten zu uns holen. Jeder Einzelne davon kostet uns nach einer dänischen Studie über 600 000 Euro. Das Geld dafür druckt die EZB, und Geldmengenzuwachs und Euro-Verfall bedeuten noch mehr Inflation. Fragt mich jemand: „Was können wir jetzt noch tun?“, sage ich stets: ganz einfach – genau das Gegenteil dessen, was deutsche Bundesregierung und EU-Kommission seit Jahren machen. Das wäre der allzeit billigste Aufbauplan und die einzige Zukunft für NextGenerationEU.

Mr President! Last year, the ECB expected inflation to be below 2% in 2022. Now we have over 9% in the euro area and over 20% in the Baltics. Switzerland has 3.5%. ECB President Christine Lagarde publicly rejected such comparisons as disreputable. But it is not the comparison that is objectionable, but the ECB's monetary policy. Switzerland has shown: Inflation of almost 10% was avoidable. However, the ECB does not want price stability at all, but pursues monetary government financing. This is why it is now also compensating for its delayed interest rate hike with higher bond purchases by the southern states. 9% inflation in wage repression and mini-interest means citizens lose 8% of their income and savings annually. What is happening here is one of the greatest raids in history, and this time against our own citizens.

Madam President, I wish to welcome Prime Minister Mitsotakis to the European Parliament. I would like to congratulate you, Mr Mitsotakis, more than once. First, on paying off your debt to the IMF two years ahead of schedule. However, the euro is quite another matter. It has not served Greece well. Greek inflation stands at 12%. Rents in Athens are up about 17% and petrol prices are approaching EUR 3 per litre. Almost 30% of Greeks are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. One million Greeks work in the tourist sector, but the rental costs of sunbeds in exclusive resorts in Mykonos now equal the monthly minimum wage in Greece. Price rises of up to 110% for Greek hotel rooms far exceed those in other holiday destinations. Lay—offs in the Greek tourist sector therefore seem inevitable. Second, I would like to thank you for your efforts in protecting Europe against the ongoing migrant invasion. Last week you decided to triple the length of the border fence with Turkey and you prevented smugglers from offloading over 1 000 illegal migrants on Greek islands. Third, I applaud your resolve in resisting aggressive posturing from Ankara. Greece’s territorial integrity should be sacrosanct to the EU, more self—evidently so than that of neighbouring non—EU countries. On the other hand, Prime Minister, I firmly disagree with you on the expansion of the European Empire. With the highest inflation rate since the 1970s, this is not the time to waste energy and money on making the Western Balkans ‘fit for 55’. Rather, we should focus on the Greek pension of EUR 384 per month and the 14 million Germans who live near or below the poverty line. Further, your government recently decided to follow Germany in ordering F—35 American fighter jets. Instead, you could have favoured European options to protect European, not American, workers and jobs. Finally, at a recent press conference on demographic change, you seemed to adopt the logic of replacement migration, commending the integration of populations from Asia and Africa as a viable alternative, or as a viable solution to low fertility rates, instead of favouring imaginative family policies, Hungarian style. The truth is that European governments have failed us for 40 years. Even Europe’s richest countries were never rich enough to allow most families to raise two or three children in modest comfort. They are now importing millions of migrants which will rarely work and usually live on welfare. Sadly, our EU leaders are destroying our welfare state through the back door – and European culture and civilisation with it. Prime Minister, I implore you to resist von der Leyen’s ‘great replacement’. Greece was under Ottoman rule for centuries. You have no reason to adopt Germany’s guilt complex.

Madam President, The ECB expects inflation to reach 6.8% this year, 3.5% next year and 2% in 2024. That is 12.8% over three years or 4.3% per year on average – well above the ECB’s 2% target and a whopping 4.3% above the EU Treaty price stability requirement. The ECB thus devalues savings by just over 4% per annum and net income by around 3%. At the same time, property prices in the euro area are rising by 10%. However, the ECB is barely raising interest rates. Conclusion: The ECB has led us into stagflation, expropriating ordinary citizens and granting large assets double-digit growth rates. Let's call things by name: The ECB has failed in monetary policy. It is nothing more than the henchman of plutocracy.

Mr President! Poland has paid very well for its veto against the introduction of a global minimum corporate tax rate of 5%. For this reason, the EU Commission has now released Poland's multi-billion-dollar national recovery plan. As a result, Hungary, the last country still waiting for its money from Brussels, is blocking the tax deal until the hypocritical EU objections are abandoned and Hungary's recovery plan approved and the billions transferred to Budapest. The EU refuses EU funding to states. The flimsy reasoning: Violation of the so-called rule of law. But the high value of independence from the judiciary and the media degenerates into a plaything or bargaining chip in the political bluff poker. This in itself is a blatant violation of the rule of law and our democratic understanding of the state. Furthermore, Poland and Hungary are now still using the unanimity principle on tax issues as a pledge against the Commission's blackmail attempts. If this principle is abandoned, Brussels will finally have its taxation without representation, Taxation without representationestablished as the cornerstone of our political order.

Madam President, Inflation in the eurozone is 9%, in Switzerland it is below 3%. Nevertheless, the Swiss National Bank raised the key interest rate by half a percent, the ECB is only a quarter of a percent in prospect. So why does the ECB do half or even quarter things? There are three reasons for rampant inflation in the eurozone: firstly, the Green Deal, secondly, the energy price explosion caused by the Ukraine sanctions against Russia, and thirdly, the unrestrained expansion of the money supply. The ECB cannot and does not want to lift the sanctions. The ECB supports the Green Deal, and the ECB will further expand the money supply to subsidise the debt of many eurozone countries. Conclusion: The ECB does not want to act.

Madam President, I am not going to speak for two, or two and a half, additional minutes, but maybe a few seconds more. I’m counting on your indulgence. Frau Präsidentin! Premierminister Plenković, meinen Glückwunsch zum Euro-Beitritt! Aber die Eurozone hat seit Jahren kaum Null- oder Negativwachstum. In der Hochtechnologie und den Wachstumsindustrien sind wir hoffnungslos abgeschlagen hinter China und den USA. Die Inflation grassiert und liegt bei 9 %; in der Schweiz liegt sie bei unter 3 %. Den deutschen Sparer allein kostete der Euro 2021 rund 160 Milliarden Euro – unbezahlbar, volkswirtschaftlich desaströs und auf Dauer vertragswidrig angelegt, denn die Eurorettung vollzieht sich seit Jahren im offenen Widerspruch zu den Artikeln 123 AEUV, 125 AEUV, 127 AEUV und 310 und 311 AEUV. Der allen Katholiken wohlbekannte und damit auch Ihren Landsleuten geläufige Thomas Morus rügte einst seinen meineidigen Widersacher Cromwell mit den Worten: „Der Einzelne mag versucht sein, sein Heil für die ganze Welt zu geben, aber für Wales?“ Sie nun geben Ihr Land auf für den Euro. Eigentlich sollten das nur Länder, die sich selbst längst schon abgeschrieben haben. Das will ich nicht hoffen für Ihr Land.

Mr President, at the launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe, I offered Guy Verhofstadt a wager for any sum that the Conference conclusions were prearranged and would call for more EU integration, less unanimity, more migration, more fanciful green humbug and more EU debt. In short, they would call for a federal EU state. Mr Verhofstadt declined the offer, for he well knew that all I predicted would come true, that the Conference process was a farce. To achieve a federal state, the EU requires Treaty revision. However, 13 Member States, including the Czech Republic and Sweden, have rejected Treaty change. The ID Group welcomes the declaration of the 13. We will support any initiative to bring the EU back to reason, prosperity and democracy, and to save us from a dysfunctional EU state.

Madam President, According to a study by the Zurich University of Technology, reforestation of the earth's surface is the most effective measure for climate rescue. A third more forest area worldwide would absorb two-thirds of the industrially produced carbon. Germany ranks 21st in the EU with 32% of forest land. With 10 percentage points of afforestation, Germany and the EU could make their contribution to climate rescue. Instead, the EU is forcing the green transformation and deindustrialisation. With a share of 2 and 8 % of global CO2 emissions, our impact on the global climate is zero. The result can therefore not be the climate rescue, but only the end of our competitiveness. You want this, because otherwise you are also talking about afforestation here.

Madam President, On Europe Day, 9 May, 13 Member States issued a joint statement rejecting the key call of the Conference on the Future of Europe, i.e. the call for treaty changes to achieve an EU state that would erase the sovereignty of the Member States. The Conference on the Future of Europe calls for an EU Constitution. In 2005, after the Convention on the Future of Europe, this idea was already rejected in referendums by majorities in France and the Netherlands. Thirteen Member States are now opposed to it. And since Hungary is even more strongly opposed to an EU constitution and thus did not sign the declaration, we have a majority against it. When will the EU finally include the word "no" in its vocabulary, the "no" of our peoples to more and more EU? Only the German government wants to wipe out its own country. My advice is therefore: If a German government wants something, they are intuitively better against it.

Madam President, This Parliament supports the OECD agreement on minimum taxation and claims that it is an important step towards greater tax fairness. More tax justice is particularly important to us. The Socialist Group, however, recently invited Brazilian ex-president Lula da Silva, here in Parliament – the same da Silva, who was twice convicted and imprisoned in Brazil for corruption and money laundering. And then there is Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, whose party just joined the European party ALDE. Because of the Pandora papers We know that Zelenskyy spent at least $40 million on himself and his family. cronies safe in tax havens. Under his ruling party, Ukraine remains one of the most corrupt and poorest countries in Europe. Hypocrites like to sunbathe in the halo of renunciation and renunciation, but secretly they are reluctant to escape the sensations of the sinner. So be honest: They just want more taxes, not justice. Above all, my group wants less taxes for everyone, except for multinational. And we want this without ifs and buts, only consistently.

Mr President, Commissioner! Competition law addresses distortions of competition, including subsidies. However, climate rescue and the green transition are now to be subsidised – without a basis in the EU treaties. The green transformation goes far beyond environmental protection. Two economies are thus created, a state- and ECB-subsidised, regulatory and interest-favoured green economy and a conventional industry that is subject to strict rules so that investors also invest green. But what if the rest of the world doesn't take part in the climate rescue? With a share of around 7% of global CO2 emissions, the EU's impact on the climate is zero. The result: We dismantle our best industries where we are still competitive. Employment and incomes are falling, while migration is rising and prices are skyrocketing – for the benefit of no one but your green financial jugglers and wind turbine barons.

Madam President, The EU Future Conference calls for EU forces to abolish the national veto and also the notion of illegal migration. Your transnational lists, in order to alienate members of parliament and voters from each other, you already got them today. Now this Parliament is pushing for a new EU constitution, after the first attempt 17 years ago failed in referendums in France and the Netherlands. This time there should be no referendums, because the conference is already democratically legitimized by the participation of 800 citizens. In fact, however, the EU still refuses to disclose, firstly, the interests and names of its conference citizens. Interesting, because my office determined: Many of the EU citizens who participate there are members of EU NGOs such as Pulse of Europe. Secondly: The citizens were selected by Kantar, a long-standing EU service provider. The selection is random, but favors self-selection, because the conference always started on Thursdays, when most people work. Thirdly: At the beginning of the conference, it was said that citizens could also participate online via the digital conference platform. Many EU critics have also done so. Therefore, the platform content has now been removed. The conference proposals ignore platform users as much as the 450 million EU citizens, and they are based solely on the 800 conference citizens, i.e. 0.00018 percent of all EU citizens, or 1.8 millionths. However, the conference citizens themselves are not to blame, because they were advised by selected pro-EU experts who explained to them what they should then propose. If the citizens were skeptical, they were silenced. This was confirmed by some young citizens who spoke to me immediately after the end of the conference. Unfortunately, they could not say this publicly. It is clear to them: Every critic has problems here. No wonder, then, that the conference proposals correspond exactly to the plans that Macron and Merkel put Ursula von der Leyen in the top three years ago. You palaver here about fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law, but you restrict expressions of opinion and open debate. For 30 years, more integration has led us into the economic abyss. They continue to do so – against all experience and against all reason.

Mr President, last week the Conference on the Future of Europe endorsed 325 recommendations for a sovereign EU federal state with new fiscal powers, joint EU armed forces, a permissive migration regime and transnational EU electoral lists, which mean people would vote for Members of Parliament who may not speak their own language. We are told the proposals are consensus-based – really? One political group, the ECR, left the Conference because it was a farce. My own group expressed vehement opposition. Eight days ago, Marine Le Pen won the majority of votes amongst the under 50 year olds, workers in rural France, they need to be defeated by the metropolitan and financial elites and those who quit reason. There is no consensus. Instead, we have a cultural war between an unholy alliance of globalists, their gatekeepers and the cultural Marxist left versus traditional Europe.

Mr President, representatives of the Commission! In anticipation of the EU Future Conference and the EU state, this House wants to reform the EU electoral law here several times. First, through transnational lists: From now on, we will not vote for familiar national but unknown EU parties in European elections. Germans or Dutch vote for Portuguese or Maltese, while Greeks are represented by Irish or Finns. It's like India after 1948. MEPs speak English so that their constituents do not understand them; Only that Indians consistently speak English better than many Globish here. Secondly, the fraud-prone postal ballot is now to be introduced throughout the EU. Thirdly, the voting age is to be reduced to 16 years. I know why: You mean they all voted tight on the left. But be careful: Eight days ago, Marine Le Pen won not only the majority of votes among workers and middle-class employees, but also among young people. Fourth, all the quota-climbing; But no one becomes a better member of parliament just because he, she, it's a woman or you can't decide. Oh, it's all very obvious what I'm saying here. I wish I could be more original, but unfortunately the truth isn't always interesting.

Madam President, Viktor Orbán has undeniably won the parliamentary elections in Hungary. The EU's response: the opening of Article 7 proceedings against Hungary for failing to comply with the rule of law. According to the Commission, Hungary is policing the judiciary, imposing transparency on Western NGOs, restricting media freedom and rampant corruption. In fact, Hungary has more oppositional media than Germany, where politics also appoints all supreme judges directly, and NGOs pursue a globalist agenda almost without exception. And Berlin and Brussels waste tax money a hundred times more frivolously than Hungary. Hungarian courts also judge far more lawfully and verbatim than German or the ECJ. With high growth, healthy family and national sentiment and stable demographics, but without the euro and mass migration, Hungary is a successful conservative counter-model to stagflation and the de-Europeanising EU. Devaluing this model of success is the real motive behind your concern for the rule of law. If it was really about securing democracy and the rule of law, the best thing would be that Germany and the EU would no longer be governed from Brussels and Berlin, but from Budapest.

I think Council Regulation 883 is quite clear. It says, I think in Article 2, ‘it shall be prohibited to sell, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly, dual-use goods and technology and any items which may be intended, in their entirety or in part, for military use or for a military end-user’.

Madam President, Hello, Mrs. von der Leyen, thank you very much for coming. President von der Leyen, you yourself called your Commission a geopolitical Commission, which would promote the European way of life and seek to assume a stronger role for Europe in the world. Now, you said these were long-standing concerns of yours, which would inspire your Presidency. In 2014, the European Council adopted Regulation 833, which prohibits the sale of dual goods to Russia. These are goods or technology, we all know which may be put to military use. Now, according to various press reports in the Brussels Times and, oddly enough, also the Deutsche Welle, between 2015 and 2018, German companies exported electronic components, which appear to have found their way into Russian drones, and there’s also talk of German sales of depleted uranium. During the relevant years, you were Germany’s Defence Minister. So my question to you is really quite simple. Can you explain to us why these transactions were approved by the German Economics Ministry, which I believe is the agency that approves all arms exports if they are allowed? Presumably this happened with the assent of your Ministry, the Ministry of Defence.

Mr President! Commissioner Šefčovič wants to bring Ukraine into the EU because Ukrainians are dying for European values. For 20 years, the EU has been supporting Ukraine in the fight against corruption, with no results. In a special report last year, the European Court of Auditors attests to Ukraine's major corruption and the capture of the state by private interests. High-level corruption hampers competition, growth and democratisation. Dozens of billions of euros are lost every year. Ukraine remains one of the poorest countries in Europe behind Albania. Your Ukraine policy has failed, as has your Russia policy, your migration policy and your economic policy. The only thing you can think of in all your shipwrecks is importing problems from other countries into the EU. Their crisis policy is only a pretext for accustoming Europeans to an ever-lower standard of living.

Madam President, The Conference on the Future of Europe states that the Europeans wanted an EU state with an EU constitution, dictated by the participation of 800 citizens, selected by a subsidiary of the US Bain Private Equity investment company. As a reminder: 800, that is 1.8 millionth of the nearly 450 million EU citizens. The 1.8 millionth is hardly to blame. They come joyously and inquisitively, and pro-EU Spinelli experts tell them that big problems can only be solved in Brussels, which knows exactly what to do but fails due to the national veto. Now we have to choose between European virtue and national attachment. No wonder, then, that the citizens' recommendations are similar to the plans that Macron and Merkel gave Ursula von der Leyen in 2019. There is no coincidence and everything is orchestrated.

Madam President, never let a good crisis go to waste. In common parlance, crises instil fear and disorientation, which allow clever politicians to impose otherwise unacceptable policies. We saw that during COVID and are seeing it now over Ukraine. We are told the war is fuelling energy and food price explosions because we are too dependent on Russian gas and oil. The EU’s conclusion: to end Russian energy imports and to accelerate the green transition. The truth is, without Russian energy, the lights would go out over most of Europe and energy prices would rise sky high – not because of delays over the Green Deal, but because of the Green Deal and because Germany, when President von der Leyen – who’s now slipped away – was still a minister under Merkel, decided it would quit reason and be the first happy-go-lucky, hippy, green industrial power without nuclear energy and fossil fuels at one and the same time. Madness is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This includes the insane obsession of creating a single EU federal state, even if, as a result, most people are worse off. Why does the European Commission not invite EU citizens to submit their energy bills to the Commission and indicate how much more they are willing to pay for the Green Deal, or whether they would prefer the Commission to use that money instead to pick up their energy bills.

Mr President! 100 million people – as we have heard – suffer from chronic kidney disease, and it is projected that kidney disease will be the fifth leading cause of death in the world by 2040. Kidney function decreases by one to two percent annually in every person from the age of 50. If certain risk factors such as diabetes, obesity or high blood pressure are added, the function of the kidney can even be reduced by up to 15% annually. Kidney disease is a human, but also a financial burden on health systems. The annual cost in Europe is around €140 billion, and the trend is increasing. Nevertheless, research into new therapies for chronic kidney disease in Europe is lagging behind internationally. Most patients are unaware of their state of health due to the lack of early diagnosis – the result also of a specialist shortage of nephrologists in Europe. The preferred treatment for end-stage renal failure is transplantation. However, the waiting period for a postmortem organ donation is 6 to 8 years. The only alternative is dialysis. As a result, only 45% of intensive care patients in the EU are transplanted and 55% are dependent on dialysis. Where can we save money to help kidney patients? Here are a few suggestions: The European Institute for Gender Equality has a budget of almost 8 million euros, which we could save immediately. The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Emergency Assistance Fund for Africa and the refugee payments to Turkey cost us around 5.5 billion euros a year, which could also be saved if we secured the borders. By the way: The German government can cost its migration policy at least 60 billion euros per year, and the climate rescue and energy policy alone already cost the Germans more than 100 billion euros per year. Consider the dialysis hours, doctors, nurses, and organ donation campaigns you could buy with it. While we are wasting hundreds of billions every year on world rescue projects, today we in the European Parliament need to ask for adequate funding for 100 million people who urgently need healthcare. So that there is not immediately an outcry: We are not against environmental protection or local aid for refugees, only our first concern is with compatriots and Europeans, especially when they suffer or fall ill. Moral duties are like concentric circles, from near to far. We see it this way, but in agreement with the Stoics, Scholastics, Immanuel Kant, the Scottish moralists or Hegel. But you don't want to know anything about European culture here. For you are thinking above all of distant countries, of which we know little.

Mr President! EU Member States have the highest tax burden of the OECD. The German tax burden on self-employed workers is 50%, compared to the OECD average of 34.6%. Nevertheless, the eurozone has the highest unemployment rate in the OECD: 7.2%, compared to the OECD average of 5.5%. 3.9% for the US and 2.8% for migration-free Japan. The hidden tax – inflation – expropriated German savers by 116 billion euros in 2021 alone. But inflation is rising. This year it will be 200 billion euros. The answer to these problems stares us in the face: We need a comprehensive tax reform. This means that the Member States must alleviate the tax burden on normal earners, reduce the enormous expenditure on non-European immigration and stop inflation of the money supply as a surreptitious tax. Instead, this Parliament ignores overtaxation and even calls for new EU taxes to support the Green Deal. It also aims to harmonise VAT rates at a high level so that Member States cannot reduce taxes on fossil fuels in order to save the poorest from freezing to death. Their green turnaround is the most antisocial ideology since the Industrial Revolution. Under the EU Treaty, the principle of unanimity protects national tax sovereignty from attacks by the EU. Changes to the contract also require unanimity. Therefore, the European Parliament now calls on the Council to circumvent the contractual tax rules in Articles 114 and 115 TFEU. Tax issues requiring unanimity in the Council are to be reformulated and redefined as elements of competition policy in accordance with Article 116. Then the qualified majority was enough. However, the EU wants to punish Member States for breaches of the rule of law. Nevertheless, it openly calls for the circumvention of the treaties if it serves the fullness of its own power. The EU position is always the same: If the treaties get in our way, we ignore them or take them out. The European Court of Justice will prove us right. And so it is. While the CJEU gives the Commission the right in 80% of all infringement proceedings against Member States, the same CJEU regularly dismisses actions for annulment brought by Member States against the EU institutions. Therefore, the legal certainty in EU law is also particularly high, because the CJEU regularly decides per EU. However, such legal certainty has very little to do with the rule of law. Hypocrisy, according to the French moralist La Rochefoucauld, is the tribute paid by the vice of virtue. It is the same with all the talk of the rule of law in this Parliament.