Alphen,
Netherlands, 21 December. Oh no, Christmas
again! Gadzooks! Once again I have crashed
and burned on the Christmas card front. So, by
way of dodgy recompense one more Yorkshire blast before the Yuletide gruel.
Myth
has it that Trotsky believed capitalism would collapse under the weight
of its own contradictions. In fact that was the so-called Ultra Leftists as neither
Lenin nor Trotsky thought capitalism would face a final reckoning, believing
rather that capitalism would preserve itself at whatever cost. Only class struggle would ensure the collapse
of capitalism. However, if alive today Trotsky
would doubtless believe the EU likely to collapse under the weight of its own copious
contradictions. At present all that is
holding the Eurozone up is Euro-Aristocratic hot air, Imperial levels of wishful
thinking and my impoverishment through huge transfers of my Dutch taxpayer’s
money.
Since I wrote “A Sad Day for Europe” last week I have
been 'assailed' by various factions of Euro-frippery. Some have been genuine but naïve, others well-intended
but misguided, and not a few self-serving and cynical (and not a few of those from
within the Brussels machine). One was from
the completely mad and worth framing and sticking on the wall school of thought. I never knew one could do that with a broom handle. One even suggested that in
time I would face the latter day version of the Spanish Inquisition. No disrespect to my Spanish friends but I
suggested in retort that the Inquisition could afford neither the
train fare nor the comfy chair (old Monty Python joke). What all had in common was a complete inability to consider what is happening to Europe analytically. This lack of analysis suggests that the
Eurozone crisis is morphing into an ideological crisis and with it a retreat
into a false consciousness (Marx) that is worse the closer one gets to Brussels
Centre.
Put
simply, there is no pan-European demos upon which a democratic political union could be
established, only a weak and frankly risible European Parliament which cannot hold
itself to account let alone Europe’s pretend government-in-waiting, the
European Commission. Worse, in the struggle for a mythical but unattainable European
polis the writ of the European Council, the only truly legitimate
inter-governmental EU body, is being daily undermined by the Parliament and the
Commission in a Brussels Centre power struggle that is adding to the chronic
uncertainty about where power lies, who exerts it and who, if anyone, has
control. As these people fiddle the Eurozone
crisis gets daily worse and Europe’s people are lulled ever deeper into a false sense of
security.
Until
Europe is led back towards competitiveness and profitability it is only a
matter of time before the Euro fails. Instead Eurozone ‘leaders’ are attempting to ring-fence the
European economy from the world economy which simply delays the inevitable crash. Printing money or making richer northern and western Europeans poorer by
transferring huge sums to poorer southern and eastern Europeans without any
real prospect of structural economic reforms can only ever be a temporary fix. Europe must be made fit
for the twenty-first century or fail. 2013 and
2014 will be the crunch years.
I believe in ‘Europe’ as a tight alliance of
democratic nation-states. For the sake
of coherence and cohesion a small Brussels-based secretariat is clearly needed
to help enact the decisions of the European Council. I do not believe in a European Commission
that seeks to compete with the very governments it should serve or a European
Parliament full of flunkies, has-beens and ‘friends and family of’. Indeed, until the so-called community method
is abandoned in favour of an alliance of governments I fear crisis will follow
paralysis and paralysis will follow crisis.
Indeed, the Eurozone crisis would be far closer to resolution if the Commission
(and 'President' van Rompuy) had not offered plan after totally unworkable and impractical plan simply to link
their insane ambitions for political union to the saving of the Euro.
If this goes on the EU will indeed collapse under the
weight of its own contradictions and at a horrifying price for the European
people. That is why as a European
citizen, historian and political scientist it is my duty to point out to a
dogmatic European uber-elite their dangerous contradictions. Therefore, I will continue to fight for a
Europe that makes sense, not a fantasy Europe but a real Europe. My Europe.
To
conclude let me thank all who have given me time and attention in 2012. You will find none of that politically
correct ‘happy holidays’ nonsense here.
Indeed, wherever and whoever you are let me thank you for your loyalty
and let me celebrate your culture by respecting you with my own. A merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all!
The
Yorkshire world view will be back in 2013!
Now then!
Julian
Lindley-French
