Britannia Radio

Delingpole's article, followed by Dr Denis Cooper's imagined revisit of history. B&A

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100105399/war-is-peace-freedom-is-slavery-ignorance-is-strength-claims-osborne/

'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength' claims Osborne By James Delingpole Politics: September 16th, 2011

"A successful Euro is massively in Britain's interests" Chancellor George Osborne said today.

He could equally well have said: "A cute puppy and/or crazy calendar kitten-in-a-basket for every working family is massively in Britain's
interests". Or: "TV series which are at least as good as Das Boot, Band of Brothers, The Simpsons, The Sopranos and South Park combined are
massively in Britain's interests." Or: "Eternal youth, endless peace and permanent full-employment in lovely jobs that everyone loves doing
are massively in Britain's interests." And made just about as much sense.

Sure a "successful Euro" would be massively in Britain's interests if we lived in a parallel universe where: the EU were a democratic entity which prized, above all else, the sovereign rights of its constituent states; the EU were not a two-speed economy where the interests of heavily socialised, terminally corrupt spendthrift southern whacko member states like Greece diverged enormously from those of stolid, hardworking, fiscally responsible states like Germany; the political union necessary to secure a stable Euro would not inevitably result in a massive democratic deficit in which sovereign peoples no longer had any meaningful control over their sociopolitical and economic destiny.

Unfortunately we don't live in that parallel universe. Which is why UKIP leader Nigel Farage was quite right to Tweet: "The British Chancellor is telling the rest of Europe it must abandon democracy. It's appalling."

Yes it is. I can't be the only one, surely, who is sick to death of hearing from economists, technocrats, politicians and bankers (i.e. the very people who got us into this mess in the first place) that the costs of a Euro break up are so unimaginably awful it simply cannot be allowed to happen.

Right then, let us do some imagining for them. Let's just think about what happens, say, when a Greek who has been nursed in the concept of Eleutheria suddenly wakes up one day to find that from now on every decision about his future prosperity ˆ what he's paid, whether he can even get a job ˆ is decided by men in suits he can never boot out of office because he never voted them into office. And let's just think about happens when you're a German small businessman whose profits are getting measlier and measlier each month thanks to all that money you're obliged to divert to places like Athens so that Greek tax collectors can go on strike for the right to retire at 22 on pensions quadruple their final earnings?

What you get, at the very least, if this goes on are Soviet-Union-level extremes of authoritarianism, control, economic stagnation, waste and abject misery.

And that's the upbeat scenario in the very unlikely event that this "soft fascist" tyranny ˆ as my new friend Timo Soini called it the other day ˆ endures for any length of time. Far, far more likely are riots, revolutions and military coups in the more hot-headed southern regions of the Eurozone. And creeping judicial, economic and political authoritarianism from the northern member states as they attempt, with increasing desperation, to shore up the ruins of a disastrous project which should have been abandoned decades ago.

Where Britain fits into all this is anyone's guess. But what I would suggest to George Osborne is this:

No it's not massively in Britain's interests to abut a Communist-style economic dead zone in which all productive business and financial service industries have long since fled to the safety of the Far East.

No it's not massively in Britain's interests to sit on the edge of a continent torn by civil disobedience or civil war.

No it's not massively in Britain's interests to demand, just because you've made no contingency for this disaster and you want to buy more dithering space, that the Finns, the Irish, the Spanish, the Dutch and the rest be forced to submit themselves to a new pan-European
dictatorship.

Sorry George, but you need to think up a Plan B. And fast.

Dr Denis Cooper's comments on the above are as follows:-

This is my own imagining, a little re-writing of history:

"In his speech to the House of Commons, Mr Pitt said that it was massively in Britain's interest that Napoleon Bonaparte should consolidate his present conquests into a strong and stable Empire.

Asked whether there might not be a danger that Bonaparte would then seek to extend that Empire across the whole of the continent, and subsequently turn his attention to the invasion and subjugation of this realm, Mr Pitt replied that he had received assurances from the Emperor that he had no further territorial ambitions.

When a member pointed out it was a matter of public record that Napoleon had already claimed legal title to the dominion of seven other countries in eastern Europe, as well as to Sweden, and that reports received just in the last week showed that he was planning to advance further into the Balkans, Mr Pitt reiterated his firm support for the Emperor's efforts to bring stability to the continent.

In his closing words, Mr Pitt strongly urged members to accept the remorseless logic that England could no longer save herself by her exertions, however great, and so should cease from any such futile attempts; but Napoleon could, as he trusted, save Europe."