The intention
was to give a full background for saying anything about Europe, but it would be
long so it is brief. By chance I was in Paris
in 1951 as a young teenage tourist when the Schumann Plan discussions (photo
above) were taking place that led to the signing of the Treaty of Paris; but my
interests were in other things.
Since then
there has been military experience, national service after basic training in
and around Germany and many other visits for various purposes, rugby tours, EEC
meetings and conferences, travelling on the ground rather than the air in many
parts, camping and seeing provinces and cities as well as the seaside. The
upshot was being in many places and many countries. You name it, I've tried the local beers and
wines.
Three of my
uncles were there, Dunkirk, Normandy and Italy, Austria and Germany. So was grandfather 1915-1918 and then Germany
into 1919. A couple of my elderly
grandaunts born in the 1870's, lovely devout ladies of religion and fluent in
French and other languages decided in 1940 to provide facilities and shelter
for French seamen and others stranded by the outbreak of war. They were thanked
by General de Gaulle.
In theory I
ought to be a Europe fan or even fanatic and once could claim to be as virtuous
an internationalist and sympathiser with the concept of European union as any. But as well as living the history, I also
studied modern history along with other things.
History does not tell us what to do, what it can tell us is what, how
and why it all can go wrong and what the consequences might be.
On 23 June we
are voting for the future and not the past and what our place in the future may
be. Our start point is the now and while
the politicians and others rattle on about their great ideas and principles and
what has been they are reluctant to admit to us what the now is and it is not
good.
The EU of the
now is bust and a major part of that is the currency it created, the Euro, is
bust as the inevitable result of botching the design and management of this new
financial instrument. They believed that
political decisions taken at the top would prevail whatever the markets or
other economic movements in play were doing.
The EU would direct and the money would follow.
It would not,
it did not and it will not, especially in a globalised world. The EU, which began in 1951 in the belief
that Europe might once again control the world economy, is now a backwater and
for some of its activity only a subsidiary body for international agencies. From being the coloniser it is now one of the
colonised.
Instead of the
European democracy that I hoped might develop, a unifying elected centre
working with other governments in law making and policy we have a closed
bureaucracy of the worst kind that apes that of some of the most ruinous and
incompetent of history. Like them it
tries to deal with this by uncontrolled expansion along with centralisation.
One question
is when did it begin to go wrong? This
is arguable, perhaps in the late 1980's as memories of the past faded and were
overtaken by other interpretations. Then
there was the reunification of Germany along with mechanisms such as the
Exchange Rate.
Also, there
was a new breed of Eurocrats and a new network based on Brussels rather than
the capitals of Europe. Later, in Britain we had Major and then Blair with
their cronies, and in other states a number of other self interested second or
third raters as leaders more concerned with their own affairs rather than
national one.
What none of
these understood was the pace, nature and implications of the changes taking
place around the world in many ways and the rapidity of that change. This is why the EU is a sclerotic, malign,
incompetent organisation that is trying to preserve a past system. It assumes it can control, but it cannot. It can only meddle, muddle and mess.
The sooner we
are out the better and making our own history rather than being the prisoners
of a defunct empire whose future will be one of failure and despair.
http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/referendum-3-for-3.html
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link, I left a comment.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link, I left a comment.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. As far as I can see there are no good articles putting the Remain point of view, they never seem to go beyond fear-mongering.
ReplyDeleteHah. Misread "The Schlieffen Plan"...
ReplyDeleteThe plan failed to take account of The London Scottish and the Worcesters and the marksmanship and firepower of the British infantry.
ReplyDelete