They Can`t Help Themselves You know

Michael Eliot ,( in Time magazine), has some arresting points to make about the glorious fifty years of our beloved EU. I think it is probably safe to say that we do not start from the same place ,although I am not at rabid EU attack hound like Arthurian Legend . I think the following lines give you an idea of “Where he’s coming from “
“The EU has spawned admirers , - how could it not -but not imitators . No other multi national grouping , not Mercosaur in Latin America , not ASEAN in South east Asia - has anything like the powerful institutions of the Union “…. This is a good thing remember. Anyway he has about twenty gifts that this much loved organisation has bestowed on we sulky little Englanders most of which are beyond risible .The first of these is “peace“.


Elliot

“ It was the Americans - with the Marshall plan and then Nato who laid the groundwork but the EU has helped to give Europe its most peaceful 60 years since records were first kept. Heres the big picture France and Germany had fought a war in each of the here generation before the treaty of Rome …blah blah…By locking together economies , societies and political structures , the EU had s made such horrors unimaginable”

New mania -

So what you seem to be suggesting is that without tying themselves like Odysseus as he listened to the Sirens ,the Germans could not trust themselves not to get the old War boots on . Its like an addiction with them . You think they seem ok but they could slip back at any time . A muscle flick above the eye one minute , a flock of screeching panzers blotting out the sunlight the next . Seriously , you mean that nice Jurgen ?


M Thatcher ( nice of you to weigh in Mrs T we need a bit of class around here:)

“My life was transformed by the Second World War….. I drew for the failure of appeasement that aggression must always be firmly resisted . But how ?The ultimate victor of the Allies persuaded me that nations must cooperate in defence of international rules if they are either to resist great evils or achieve great benefits . That is merely a platitude if ……nations lack strong bonds of common loyalty .Weak nations could not have resisted Hitler effectively- indeed those nations that were weak did not stand up to him. So I drew from the Second world war a very different lesson from the hostility to the nation state that evinced by some post war European Statesmen . My view was- and is -that an effective internationalism can only be built by strong nations which are able to call upon the strong loyalty of their citizens to defend and enforce civilised rules of international conduct. An internationalism that seeks to supersede the nation state however will very quickly founder on the reality that few people are prepared to make genuine sacrifices for it .

New mania - Do continue Mrs T you are making excellent sense here……

M Thatcher-It is likely to degenerate into a formula for endless discussion and hand wringing …..


New mania - Good point Thatch and like your dress you saucy Minx !


The truth is that the world after the Second world war was nothing like that which had existed before it , in fact the First and second World Wars are rally the same war. The new enemy was Russia and NATO ,ourselves included, but primarily ,the Americans stood up to the Soviet threat . The EU was worse than useless ,as it has continued to be , notably in the Balkans . Of course one can understand why Germans would be wary of their own nationalism, and also why the French would want to keep them close . What has this to do with us , the people who with indomitable national pride stood alone against the savage Hun ? We have every right to be proud of this country and the French in particular have considerable reason to be somewhat more grateful than they are.Their Second World war was ,after all ,about ten minutes of spineless froggery

There is of course a great deal more to be said about the EU but I feel that is the heart of it we have become embroiled in an organisation against Nationalism in its bones and everything in our history before and since tells us this is wrong . This why the inheritors of Delors will never give up with there Constitution despite being told to bugger off time and time again .This is why we must resist even if that means as some suggest , leaving..


PS
I can`t be bothered with much of the rest of it but this will give an idea at the sort of thing that he deems to be worth sacrificing that nationality that has served us so well

The French Countryside

“There has to be something to be said for the CAP and indeed there is . The timeless contours of La France Profonde - at least south of the wheat and beat belt - are a testimony to the long subsidy of French farming. The French subsidy may offend free trade purists but on a Summer morning in the Dordogne there is something to be said for impurity…..”

I `m not kidding , other highlights are “ Ireland’s revival “, Better Football”,” Airbus”, “ Climate Change …stuff” ,“ Cleaner beaches”…honestly its hard to know if he mean any of this seriously. Giving our money generously to good causes internationally and channelling away from us to little c Galicia. A raft of labour rights including the right to come and work and retire here demanding all sorts of goodies that are enshrined in the Treaty of Rome.


H e summarise by calling the whole thing a “ Stunning Miracle “

Are you stunned ? I think I may be