Wednesday 4 October 2017

Is the situation in Catalonia a dress rehearsal for the future of the European Union?

Is the situation in Catalonia a dress rehearsal for the future of the European Union? Sadly the answer is probably yes! 

The Catalans argue for independence – many young people are evident! – on the grounds that their psychological and cultural identity is different from the rest of Spain. A well known 20th century tyrant – Joseph Stalin – in a pamphlet written in 1913, also highlighted this aspect as being one of the defining features of a nation: “… a common psychological make-up, which manifests itself in a common culture, is one of the characteristic features of a nation.”  Even knowing this, Stalin did not make a success of the multinational state that he created – the Soviet Union. The grim history of multinational states is a warning to take note of.

The European Union does not have a common psychological make-up, manifesting itself in a common culture. That is one of the lessons that I have learned from spending the past 30 years working with just about every nationality in the European Union, and spending much time in several Member States. Yet the blue flag waving European Unionists seem to be in denial about this. Many of these people are extremists, and European Unionists are just – nationalists!

In the European Parliament there is a place where citizens can be exposed to European Union propaganda. In this place there is a recording of a very deluded MEP stating that the problem of nationalism in Europe has been solved. Not so. The problems have been amplified and doubled, for not only do we now see peoples of the Member States reasserting their national identities as never before over the past 60 years, but we also see the creation of a new form of nationalism – European Union nationalism. Like the Spanish who tried to suppress Catalan cultural identity, the European Union nationalists, if they ever gain power, will suppress the national cultures of the Member States (actually they are already subtly trying to do this).

The conditions for conflict are being laid and if Junker gets his way, on March 30th 2019 continental Europe will begin the march down that old, well trodden road that leads to a very familiar, very European destination. And yet anyone who speaks out and warns is treated like ...  This is also an old well trodden road as well – the Nazis did this in their early days. Later they did more. Will the European Union nationalists do they same? Of course they will, for I have seen the wild empty stare in their eyes – it is frightening.

If we wish to preserve peace, harmony and prosperity in Europe, then it is time to take a stand against this European Union nationalism. It is time to tell these people that the age of grand overarching ideologies and utopian visions, is over. We have seen in the 20th century, where these fantasies lead. No more! It is also time to deal with the problem that the European Commission has become. Alas, we cannot look to the politicians for help here, because they are too preoccupied with matters economic and monetary. So what to do? Time to take up the pen and the brush and do what is necessary – ridicule and satire …

Being British, people might ask why I care about this, given that we will leave the European Union on March 29th 2019. They might say that it is not a British problem if the peoples of continental Europe once more end up living in a dictatorship – this time of technocrats – with a sham democracy that sends deputies to a parliament in Brussels that just rubber stamps decrees handed down by an elitist body – a parliament that can in any case be overridden.

It is a good question. Perhaps it is because I care. Perhaps it is because, when these things happen in continental Europe, people end up dying in numbers that defy comprehension. Perhaps it is because I have a conscience and cannot stand by and let the past become the future. Perhaps it is because I have seen too much over the past 30 years of my involvement in Brussels, and I do not want to see any more. Perhaps it is because I believe in the power of one …

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