Thursday 3 January 2008

Wider Still and Wider





Last month, having shafted the Nation (and shorted the Pound),
Gordon Brown made a feeble attempt to draw a line under the EU Constitution, stating:

We expect no change in the foreseeable future so that the union will be able to fully concentrate on other challenges ahead.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Ambassador has written to the Grauniad in pained terms, concerning an 'atlas of carbon hot-spots' he found in its pages:

… I tried to find my country on your graphic ... After some effort I finally found Ukraine in the section for Eurasia. The point is that Ukraine does not possess a single square inch of territory anywhere outside Europe. Ihor Kharchenko, Ambassador of Ukraine

No prizes for guessing what His Excellency wants for Christmas. Don’t worry pal, no-one listens to Brown: and if Bulgaria qualifies . . .

PS, as regards your own little 'hot spot', you’ll love Sarkozy’s idea for a new EU nuclear policy

ND

15 comments:

Old BE said...

I'm all for widening, the wider the better. Turkey next though, please.

Brown can mumble on about no more treaties for ten years because under The Treaty, The Treaty can be amended without a new treaty.

Nick Drew said...

Ed - are you in the 'enlarge it enough and it breaks' camp ?

CityUnslicker said...

JFK Ed, the EU is a monster and you wish to feed it?

I see gold is at $870 today ND...

The Ukraine has some nice resources that the socialist model of the EU would regard as a big boon. Somehow I doubt Mr Putin would ever let this happen. Unless he decides he wants to take-over a bankrupted EU in a couple of years time....

Old BE said...

No I'm in the "a large free trade zone suits me nicely but you will never get 35 countries agreeing on political and cultural stuff" camp.

Nick Drew said...

gold - yup, & Sterling tanking too

Richard Elliot said...

Go Ed.

Anonymous said...

Don't be gordonized.

Support Free Europe Constitution by voting YES at www.FreeEurope.info!

Whispering Walls said...

What about Darling's idea of not allowing depositors to withdraw their money from troubled banks? So much for free markets...

James Higham said...

Spot on, Nick.

Anonymous said...

Sadly the EU will not be broken by too many other cultures joining the party. It is already infused with French socialist bureaucratic anti-democratic culture with a unhealthy does of radical Marxism and if you want to join the EU party now you have to do it following their rules. The French are particularly proud of how they have suckered in the whole of Europe to follow their way of thinking - even if they are not sure they like their own way of thinking anymore.

However, for most of my life the EU really hasn't done very much. We thought it a bit cheeky when the continentals told us to clean up our beaches but since it isn't logical to complain about beaches being too clean we didn't do much about it. But then the EU came up with Maastricht, Schengen and the Euro and things changed big time. The EU started to have real muscle. But with real muscle comes real responsibility to wield that muscle wisely. That was never likely to be the case however, since the EU is actually run by a bunch of failed former Marxist ministers. Some said a Eurozone "one size fits all" policy wouldn't work. They were right. Now we have some parts of Europe struggling through a long recession whilst other parts are in a crack-up boom phase. Eastern Europe is mainly in the crack-up boom phase as the citizens of various countries have taken on huge amounts of over-leveraged debt to buy holiday apartments that they hope to sell to rich Brits, but mostly are traded with their own nationals. The Ukraine may not be quite so keen to join the EU when it sees what is about to happen to its newest members. Especially if the newest members end up spitting nails at the ECB, threatening to leave the Eurozone and the EU altogether.

Mark Wadsworth said...

I'm all for Turkey joining the EU - they can take our place when we leave.

Nick Drew said...

Ed, Richard - am absolutely on the same page with you: and in my more optimistic moments it seems the Competition Commission is, too

WW - haven't read that bit yet, I've only seen him mooting powers for FSA to take over deposits, + a £50k upper limit on guarantee: wot have I missed ?

Nick Drew said...

Mr Real - we speak properly at last ! Do you really think anything could deflect Ukraine's desire to join ?

I agree that real muscle can engender responsibility and have always congratulated the USSR on the way it handled its nuclear capability. One might even extend this to all nuc powers - thus far ...

Anonymous said...

Well Ukraine probably wants some EU jam. But will there be any left, and is it being spread too thinly? After all, double-digit money-supply growth won't cover up the fact that the EU is still falling behind the RoW in productivity of real stuff (other than electronic money). Of course, if the newest members of the EU decide to pull out for their own safety and sanity then there might be more jam left for the Ukraine. And the EU will be eager to have the Ukraine, since it gives them yet another excuse to delay recruiting the Muslims, sorry, Turkey.

But I foresee another scenario. Economic collapse in Eastern Europe, Spain and Ireland will lead many people to vacate their home countries and make full use of the Schengen open borders agreement. Germany and France will be awash with them, at a time when France and Germany will also be struggling economically as their export led growth comes to an abrupt end. Result? Huge resentment towards foreign "invaders" leading to war in Europe within 10 years and 2 million Slavs thrown in the gas chambers. Never say "Never again".

Nick Drew said...

actually I do