Nice knowing you.
Emmanuel Macron has admitted that the EU ‘could die’ as he issued a dire warning about the bloc’s economy.
The French President told the Berlin Global Dialogue event that the EU was over-regulating and under-investing.
The over regulating bit was one reason many of us voted to leave. The demise of the EU would be a nice by product of that vote.
In words reported by the Daily Telegraph, Macron said: ‘The EU could die, we are on a verge of a very important moment.
‘Our former model is over – we are over-regulating and under-investing. In the two to three years to come, if we follow our classical agenda we will be out of the market’.
Send for a priest, then?
He said that the bloc cannot compete alone with the likes of China and the United States and needs a far more integrated single market to create pan-European businesses of the require global scale.
The solution is more of the same, only bigger. That will work. I prefer the other solution personally.
The EU motor was fuelled by German industry, lubricated by British money and driven by French cunning. And what happens when you fail to lubricate the motor? Answers on a ballot-paper.
If I recall correctly, Cameron tried to get the EU to reform but they refused. If there had been some willingness in this direction that might have been enough to swing the Referendum in favour of remaining.
Macron sees that there is a problem but cannot see any solution but the old one which seems to be more state regulation, planning and directed investment. This at a time when a number of countries, Italy, The Netherlands and even Sweden, seem to be increasingly disenchanted with th EU.
What are the chances of Sir Janus Starmfuhrer finding a way of saddling the UK taxpayers with part of the bill for this?
And probably agreeing to hand Gibraltar over to the Spanish as a trade-off for letting us come grovelling back…
One of the things that has puzzled me for some time is the utter and monumental stupidity of current world leaders.None of them seem to learn from their own or others mistakes.
Consider the sheer genius and industry of the men who gave us the modern world,Stephenson,father and son, Brunel father and son, Newton ,Faraday,Edison and into the modern era with Ford,Austin,Morris etc . All these and more made a cleaner, richer and more comfortable world for the ordinary man.
We now have the situation where all those in power are actively seeking to dismantle the structures which run our lives,whist making sure that they are feathering their own nests.
Will it take a real and bloody revolution to make them realise how close they are to provoking a violent reaction ?
The EU, may it rot in hell.
In the olden days it was businessmen that went into politics. They were experienced with running businesses, managing people and making money. It then went to shit when we had professional politicians whose only qualifications are a passing grade in politics.
It was made worse by the EU actually running things because when we took control back we found that none of them were any use. They couldn’t run a whelk stall.
Fuck em all. We need to get rid of professional politicians and get back to people that have real skills in running businesses.
My dad used to talk of an elderly client of his who told him, “My husband used to say that the day they start paying MPs a salary will be the beginning of the ruination of this country. And,” she looked him in the eye, “I have lived to see it”.
I’m not sure she did live to see the full horror of it (as you might guess, this was some time ago), but we will. The professionalisation of politics has been an absolute catastrophe, all over the world. And I can’t see how it ends peacefully.
I can see why paying our MPs would have originally seemed to be a good idea. In principle, universal suffrage would require the political process being open to everyone and not just people of independent means. As it is, people from privileged backgrounds seem to end up running the show anyway and the ones that don’t have the proverbial silver spoon seem to be among the stupidest people on the planet.
People go from university into a career in politics, knowing nothing of the outside world. Paying them is fine. However, we need to up the bar to entry. A minimum age and a minimum requirement for outside work. I’d put it as a minimum of forty years old with twenty years work experience in the outside world. That said, Kier Starmer would qualify, so the system isn’t perfect. Maybe just kill all the lawyers?
Far more than that, we same Cameron approach Merkel et al with what were completely reasonable proposals for change and being sent away with a flea in his ear. That probably tipped the balance in favour of Leave more than all the Farcebook advertising spent by Farage and co.
Macron’s real point though is the value that the French get from the EU (mostly greater political influence and financial aid through CAP) doesn’t justify the financial costs in both direct payments to the EU budget and the cost of EU regulations.
This didn’t effect most countries previously, since they just avoided most of the costs of EU regulations by employing only a handful of people to enforce them (unlike the UK where EU Regulations were gold plated by the Blob into UK law and then enforced strictly and absolutely).
I think the next change will be lots of countries saying “We’re just not doing this” and being fined by the EU regulators for not enforcing their “laws” and EU countries refusing to pay.
Eventually, it’ll be like the Catholic Church, making pronouncements that those nominally subject to it simply ignores.
The EU won’t be killed easily, just ignored and gradually defunded until it becomes essentially obsolete.
Jings, crivvens! And some say that the Pope is a Roman Catholic!
The EU has been committing suicide. They have not been competing with China and the rest. They were trading for mutual good. They, the EU, have been selling loads of expensive cars, fashion, machine tools, aircraft, etc. in return for consumer goods and the hardware of the Eco-Green zealots. The windmills, solar panels and “consumable” electric car batteries are not forced on us. We cripple ourselves by closing and not replacing power sources using coal, oil, gas and nuclear fission, thus driving industry away with high energy prices.
Then the kicker. We place sanctions and extra duties on imports and exports. So the Chinese develop replacements for what the EU used to sell to them. And they are not saddled with Green bollox. And DEI. And they know the importance of STEM.
Wurr doomed, Ah tell ye. Doo-oomed.
The German economy is gradually being eroded by green crap. Since Germany has been a major source of funding for the EU in the past, I wonder what will happen if Germany can no longer afford to prop the whole rickety edifice up? Their cars have long had a reputation for excellent build quality. I would always go for a car from the Far East where you can get the same build quality for a fraction of the price.
Which is why the EU are putting up tariff barriers against Chinese cars.