Dear Mr Kauder, A Polite British Word of Advice - in English

Alphen, the Netherlands.  16 November, 2011

Dear Mr Kauder,

I read with interest your disrespectful public comments about Britain at the CDU conference yesterday. I particularly enjoyed your line about preventing we British from 'getting way' with our opposition to the proposed German politicians rescue plan, sorry, the financial transaction tax.  For the record I of course respect both you and modern Germany and I understand this to be a difficult moment.  However, with 400 dead British soldiers in Afghanistan and over 2000 grievously wounded, a lot of them because Germany was not prepared to pull its weight therein, lecturing we British about 'solidarity' is what we would call a bit rich.

Quite simply we British have been doing too much of the dying for Europe these ten years past for a mission in which we were all meant to be equals. Clearly, solidarity in the German you now claim Europe speaks only extends to your selfish pursuit of money, not the dangerous bits for which you seemingly expect we Britons to pay the ultimate price in great numbers.  And now you wish to further damage our fragile economy to save you from a folly we warned you about many years ago. That is precisely why we did not join the Euro. It is called sovereign choice.

Your cheek seemingly knows no bounds because not only do you want our money, but to exclude us from your nice little leadership pact with France that challenges European democracy to its core. I think in America they call that taxation without representation and they recently got rather annoyed about that.

Now, I am more than prepared to do my bit for Europe and as a Dutch taxpayer I know I will have to pay, but in return I expect your country's leadership to get its act together and face facts; the German taxpayer is also going to have to pay.  So, no more of this ridiculous anti-British rubbish simply to mask your own country's incompetence.  Let us stay focused on the economics of the matter and then we might find a way forward together.

Attacking we British in such an egregiously unfair way when Germany has shown so little solidarity with my country or respect for it over so many years will only make us fight back and you will pay a price for that. Surely, you Germans have learned by now never to under-estimate we British. Treat my country with respect and you might get a respectful answer; treat us with contempt and we will show you what contempt means - in English.

If you wish to properly understand the situation you might wish to consult three of my recent blogs which have been published on leading European and American web-sites: No Taxation Without Representation; Solidarity: The Emptiest Word in Eurospeak; and my most recent, A German Europe or a European Germany?

You may learn something...maybe even just a bit of respect.

Yours respectfully,

Julian Lindley-French,