Good by EU, we hardly knew you.

Jeremy · 06-01-2005

Ummmmm a few small points:

Chirac hasn't gone and won't go. His Prime Minister Rafarrin has fallen on his sword, to be replaced by de Villepin, a guy who's never been elected to any public office. (Not quite sure how the fuck that works).

An American school history project marked by an American teacher regrettably doesn't make "America made the EU" fact, it makes it a one-eyed interpretation of events.

The more commonly accepted route to formation of the EU stems from a post-war Franco-German desire not to let the first half of the 20th century repeat itself - "never again" & the view that a very good way to ensure fewer nationalistic contretemps was to bring about economic alliances, integration and inter-dependency. ECSC 1951, Treaty of Rome 1957, etc etc. No doubt the US was also encouraging a strong economic entity as an additional bulwark against the Warsaw Pact countries.

The EU is in some ways a good thing. It's one way to ensure that Europe can compete economically with the US / NAFTA and especially China and or India in the coming decades.

Britain should be at the heart of the EU (if for no other reason than to give the French a poke in the eye), but it shouldn't be built on a federal, euro-socialist model and it certainly shouldn't cost as much to run! To assume one can constitutionalise away centuries of scrapping and dislike over 50 or so years is both foolish and naive.

A British return to the Commonwealth will not work - thoughts that it would smack of expat, flag-raising, gin-wallahs, complaining that things ain't what they used to be as they read their Daily Mail:

No commonwealth countries would be able to buy our goods at "inflated" Western prices, and certainly not in the quantities neccessary to make it economically viable;

None of them would want to even risk going back to being dominated by imperialist London;

Many of them have snuck off and formed their own trading alliances.

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06-01-2005	#31
Jeremy Members Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 157	Ummmmm a few small points: Chirac hasn't gone and won't go. His Prime Minister Rafarrin has fallen on his sword, to be replaced by de Villepin, a guy who's never been elected to any public office. (Not quite sure how the fuck that works). An American school history project marked by an American teacher regrettably doesn't make "America made the EU" fact, it makes it a one-eyed interpretation of events. The more commonly accepted route to formation of the EU stems from a post-war Franco-German desire not to let the first half of the 20th century repeat itself - "never again" & the view that a very good way to ensure fewer nationalistic contretemps was to bring about economic alliances, integration and inter-dependency. ECSC 1951, Treaty of Rome 1957, etc etc. No doubt the US was also encouraging a strong economic entity as an additional bulwark against the Warsaw Pact countries. The EU is in some ways a good thing. It's one way to ensure that Europe can compete economically with the US / NAFTA and especially China and or India in the coming decades. Britain should be at the heart of the EU (if for no other reason than to give the French a poke in the eye), but it shouldn't be built on a federal, euro-socialist model and it certainly shouldn't cost as much to run! To assume one can constitutionalise away centuries of scrapping and dislike over 50 or so years is both foolish and naive. A British return to the Commonwealth will not work - thoughts that it would smack of expat, flag-raising, gin-wallahs, complaining that things ain't what they used to be as they read their Daily Mail: No commonwealth countries would be able to buy our goods at "inflated" Western prices, and certainly not in the quantities neccessary to make it economically viable; None of them would want to even risk going back to being dominated by imperialist London; Many of them have snuck off and formed their own trading alliances.