The tide of mendacious pro-EU propoganda that has flooded this country for the last 20 years or so, has been so relentless and has become so institutionalised that us beleaguered ‘antis’ were, until recently at any rate, quite despondent about the prospects of getting our message across concerning the reality of this misconceived ‘Reich’.
No lie has been too outrageous and, on occasion, the lies have even been contradictory without anybody seeming to notice. We have been told that Europe is more prosperous, Europe is fairer, Europe is more open-minded, Europe is more dynamic, Europe has less crime, Europe is more modern, Europe is more generous, Europe is more caring, the cost of living is cheaper, everyone in Europe has a better standard of living and (drum roll, please) Europeans are more sophisticated!!
My father told me that he remembers exactly the same things being said about the Soviet Union in the 1930’s.
So it gives me an incalculable thrill to see an article about Europe’s coming collapse in a British newspaper:
“The cause is a self-destruction wrought by a political elite that has wrapped itself in fantastical self-delusion about the superiority of its economic system, the coming ascendancy of the single currency over the dollar, and the tide of wealth and prosperity that would inevitably flow from the relentless pursuit of “ever closer union”. Here, on an epic scale, has been a procession of naked emperors who cannot begin to grasp why the world has stopped applauding.”
The article may be right or it may be wrong but, for my purposes, that almost doesn’t matter; its very publication is the rub. It would certainly not have appeared even a year ago and the fact that it has surfaced now, and in a mainstream publication to boot, is an indication that the tide is turning.
I don’t think that it will happen and I don’t want it to, but if the EU proves unsustainable after all I won’t be saddened by it’s collapse.
I think that these problems are mostly caused by overregulation in the member nations, but the so-called growth and stability pact is making it much worse in a situation like this.
I guess that the article is no more than a product of wishful-thinking.
David
Damn, I wish I’d seen that. Looks like the stakes are rising.
Well spotted.
It would probably be useful to point out the EU gdp per capita grew at the same rate as US gdp per capita during the 1990s. Furthermore income became relatively less unequal, thus median income per head probably outpaced the US.
Peter Hitchens: The Abolition Of Britain.
A “must” read.
(yes, hes related to christopher, he doesnt get as much press but hes every bit as good a writer)
I heard that the “Guardian” had an article by Timithy Garton Ash (or some such name) that Britain should get out of the E.U.
I was astonished that the Guardian (of all newspapers) should have such an article. So I went out to buy the Guardian (something I have never done in my life).
Sadly I was unable to get a copy – there is not much call for this newspaper in Kettering.
I would be greatfull if someone could send me a copy of the article – to my e.mail address paulvmarks@hotmail.com
Paul Marks.
Brian, I think the article is even more surprising than you say. It’s not just a British newspaper, but a Scottish one (think about how the Scottish establishment is usually pro-European as a respectable means of being anti-English), and it’s not just some mad columnist talking but the Editorial Voice.
There were more high tech start-ups in Israel than in the EU in the last decade. The structural un-employment for persons under 35 in the EU is much larger than in the US or UK. In Michigan (US) I meet people all the time who have come here to start new ventures because the EU climate is so hostile. You can have a new venture chartered by the state government and up and running in ONE day here. It takes up to two years in Germany or France. The inabliity of EU countires to integrate a vast population recently arrived from Moslem countries is a very bad sign for the future.