Ross Clark
economic measures to stave off national bankruptcy. The Greek unrest is a direct result of arrogance on the part of EU leaders. They were warned by economists that trying to force different economies into the straitjacket of a single interest rate would force peripheral countries into boom and bust. They were warned about Greece where a lack of fiscal responsibility made it an especially poor candidate for membership of the euro.
But such was the megalomania of the EU’s leaders that all fears were dismissed. The creation of the euro had to go ahead because it symbolised the “ever-closer union” declared in the Treaty of Rome. The ideal of free movement has similarly been pursued with little regard to the consequences.
When in the 1980s the EU dreamed up the Schengen agreement, which was to abolish customs formalities between most member states, officials failed to appreciate what should have been obvious – that it would require extrastrong border controls around the exterior of Europe.
Instead, we have ended up with migrants arriving in huge numbers in Southern Europe, free to make their way northwards. Where do the images of fences being hastily erected and of far-right groups exploiting
TROUBLE is, the EU has an institutional bias against democracy. It was founded by a generation of European leaders who blamed democracy for the rise of Hitler and believed that the people need to be protected from themselves.
The result is that the power in the EU is held not by its parliament but by the European Commission – the equivalent of the civil service. It is like Britain would be if the Sir Humphrey of Whitehall really were in charge, and the House of Commons there merely to rubber-stamp their decisions.
There was a time when Cameron could see these deficiencies. In his Bloomberg speech in 2013, when he first announced his intention to hold a referendum, he spoke of a “gap between the EU and its citizens which has grown dramatically in recent years” and warned that “Europe will fail” if the “lack of democratic accountability” was not addressed.
His subsequent negotiation failed to address this lack of democratic accountability. And he seems to have been reborn as an unconditional Europhile.
It is thoroughly unconvincing. In his desperation to win the vote he has contradicted himself and lost credibility.
The more desperate Cameron becomes, the more bizarre the scare stories he tries to spin, the more likely it is that the electorate will deliver the verdict on the EU that he fears.
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