"It has been obvious for over 20 years what the European Union’s systemic institutional flaw is: the euro itself, designed to lay the groundwork for a federal state."
So says Professor Robert Tombs in an article for the Telegraph last week.
"As economists and politicians warned at the time – and were ignored – a single currency in a continent marked by deep economic, cultural and political differences would be a cause of constant tension, because it would enrich some regions and impoverish others."
And these flaws are being exposed on an unprecedented scale as the political crisis enveloping Italy, one of the eurozone’s ‘Big three’ economies plays itself out.
"Following the resignation of Draghi – former president of the ECB and guarantor of orthodoxy – the yield on Italian debt has risen. In the face of sharply rising eurozone inflation, the ECB delayed raising interest rates because it would increase the debt burden on member states. But now it has had to do so, and also announce more compensatory bond buying."
And now the crisis in the Ukraine brings further headaches to the EU Commission as it battles to overcome an energy crisis of its own making, now that Putin has decided to play cat and mouse and potentially starve Europe of the gas it needs to keep the lights and heating on. The absurdity of its ‘green’ energy policy could not be clearer:
"Europe has for some time been deindustrialising and has become dependent on Asia, and especially China, for most of its wind turbines and panels. The promised jobs in green energy have not materialised – except in China, of course, where “green” power equipment is manufactured using cheap energy from coal, so even the planet gets no benefit.
(I am optimistically waiting for Extinction Rebellion to glue themselves to the Chinese embassy.)
On its present trajectory, Europe will at best jump out of the Russian frying pan into the Chinese fire. Our present problems might then seem minor in comparison."
Now we are (mostly) free from the EU’s clutches, the UK should take full advantage with an urgent policy review including:
"Rapidly increase our domestic energy resources and storage capacity. Set up a task force to accelerate modular nuclear power, as was done with Covid vaccines. Diversify our food supplies, which at the moment are overwhelmingly dependent on the EU and road and ferry links. (Why are we still imposing tariffs and quotas on imported food from outside the EU?) Ensure that our financial institutions are as resilient as possible and as distanced as possible from the euro."
However, there are STILL those advocating we row back to the disaster we have just left:
"The Guardian recently showed remarkable ingenuity by managing to make the good news that manufacturing exports to the EU were increasing into a scare story about our “dependence”. Current affairs magazines such as the New Statesman and Prospect run long articles on the supposed disasters of Brexit."
Why do they persist in their stubborn support of the EU when all evidence points the other way?
"This week I read two new books attacking Brexit, which give a clue. One thing they have in common is that they say nothing at all about Europe or the EU. All their considerable verve is spent in attacking what they see as pathological characteristics of Britishness.
This has been typical of Remainer discourse since 2016. Those 1930s enthusiasts for communism who visited the Soviet Union came back with descriptions of a workers’ paradise. True, they were blind to the starvation, the repression and the fear, but they did have a vision of what they wanted, however illusory.
But I’ve never read a Remainer book (and I have quite a collection) describing how wonderful the EU is: the talents of its Commission, the friendly atmosphere of the Parliament, the spacious motorways built with regional funds."
The full article can be read below with a link to the original here:
CREDIT: AM POOL/Getty
Comentarios