Pull your punches why don't you?

Spiffing speech by Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson, posted onto his website, the ever wonderful and enlightening - and rather 'Ronsealesque', "EU Related nes from Iceland".
It goes on a bit, wellit is a speech in text, but I shall just give you a taste from the first and last paragraphs,
"I would like to begin by stressing the fact that Iceland is far from being on its way into the European Union. Of course some Pro-EU people are likely to claim otherwise, especially in Norway. But the fact nevertheless remains. There is actually nothing at present which indicates that Iceland will ever join the EU and in fact it has probably never been as unlikely as today".
That should do as an introduction,
The conclusion however is somewhat softer,
"So in conclusion there is in fact nothing which indicates that Iceland is on its way to join the European Union, at least not in the coming years. We simply have no intention or compelling reasons to do so as I said in the beginning of this speech. Also both domestic and international studies have repeatedly confirmed that we are simply doing much better outside the Union than most of its memberstates – and in some cases even all of them".

Ok, not that soft.

However what is telling is the section on pro-EU propaganda. Now we no longer live in a country that can produce such effervescant self-confidence, but we can recognise the pernicious aspects of the propaganda.
"That there is simply no alternative than complete isolation. That we are too small to stay outside the Union. At the same they accuse us on the Eurosceptic side for lacking ambition for Iceland. Then they add that Icelandic EU membership is not a question of whether but when. Just like they have the ability to see into the future and declare such indeterminate things which no one of course can say anything certain about. The purpose of this is of course to try to convince people that there is pointless to fight back".