War And Peace

The Italian press are reporting that a return of terrorism is likely if the labour reforms demanded by the EU are enacted. Now, whilst it might be Italy that is wrong in this scenario, it is nevertheless a fact. But just as the Euro assumes all countries have identical financial and economic situations, so the EU itself assumes ever country has the same systems of justice and social standards.

Nick Clegg believes this too and David Cameron has been swept up thinking the EU is actually a functioning Utopia. In Britain, I can go to Scotland and leaving aside some local traditions and customs, feel no different than at home. This is patently not true if I were to go to Italy. There is only the slimmest of shared experience. This has been covered up by the EU technocrats as of no consequence, because as they get their way, national traits will be steamrollered out of existence. Except they aren't.

The fault lies with the short-termism of politicians. They do not act for the long term good of their country, but for the short term, gains that reflect on them immediately (because we are too stupid to understand the long game). So they do not examine a system and see how best to achieve an end result, they just pile in and expect things to turn out OK. If an effort had been made to create a European standard, to show up the nature of our shared civilization, it may still have not been instantaneous, but we would be well on the way.

Instead, the nearest we get is forced solutions; a Europe wide police force, employment laws, health and safety edicts, Human Rights and the Code Napoleon. The usual big government solution, top down instruction. They didn't even consider best practice here, otherwise much would emulate the UK systems, rather than imposing French ones that don't even work well there. No, the EU had at its core the kernel of a decent idea, but instead of cleverly working out a system to suit a diverse citizenry, they designed a system to suit French politicians and technocrats. It was bound to fail. Arrogance always does.