MY FIRST ever vote years ago was a no to joining the European Common Market, now morphed onto the European Union (EU). So the recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU must be a joke of huge proportions that will upset many Oxford Mail readers, I think? But my actual reasons for thinking this award a complete joke may differ slightly.

The award was for “Europe transformed from a continent of war to one of peace”.

Try telling that to the Slavs, Afghans, Iraqis or Palestinians who have died in their thousands thanks to the servile support of the EU.

Cyprus hold the current presidency while their island is partitioned thanks to Turkey, whose own EU membership is shelved as a consequence. Past Nobel Peace awards have included Henry Kissinger after war crimes in South America and south-east Asia, Jimmy Carter after overseeing massacres in Indonesia and, the biggest joke of all, Barack Obama for peace efforts in the Middle East, not to mention three Israeli politicians. The days of the likes of Martin Luther King being a recipient are obviously long gone, the award now making the Nobel committee a complete laughing stock. The EU is another disastrous winner but methinks I’ll find support among readers, but with very differing reasons.

TIM W SIRET

Millmoor Crescent

Eynsham