The fall of Britain

[AzariLoveIran]

[Captain Murphy]

[Colonel Sun]

[Demon of Undoing]

Think the entire premise is flawed. We will not see the rise of super- states, but of supra- states; global financial empires with states attatched and co- aligned.

[AzariLoveIran]

[crashtech]

It honestly seems that hatred of Britain clouds your vision, ALI.

[AzariLoveIran]

[Tinker]

[Captain Murphy]

British prosperity, and their ability to colonize backwaters, came from their relatively enlightened form of governance, rapid assimilation of progressive (Renaissance and Enlightenment) ideas, and industrialization. I seem to recall a study that claimed British industrialization was no accident, that even in the middle ages, productivity was already higher in Britain than elsewhere in Europe.

Can't find the original article I was thinking of and I may have conflated two different ones. Here are a couple from The Economist:

[Torchwood]

[Ibrahim]

[Endovelico]

[Alexis]

"Fog over Channel; Continent Isolated" is the famous (apocryphal?) headline of a British newspaper beginning 20th century.

The actual events of last Friday were much less dramatic than they are represented: Cameron tried to extract protection for the City's financial activities from any EU' financial regulations in exchange for acquiescence to a treaty modification that was not a direct concern to Britain, and he failed. Not so much of a big deal in actuality, though the symbol is remarkable.

Another way to tell it is that Britain was proposed a ticket on the Hindenburg, and declined it so as to stay her course on the Titanic: she prefered to continue sailing a QE-propelled ship (like all the other America, China, Japan or Switzerland of this world) destined to sink under the weight of currency printing, rather than climb on a ship propelled by thin air and destined to explode in flight.

Hey, to each his own !


Gestern der Hindenburg, morgen der Euro!


Yesterday Titanic, tomorrow Sterling, Dollar, Yuan, Yen et al.!

[Demon of Undoing]

I prefer the American style of total manmade disaster.



" He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle..."

Or maybe this would be more accurate.



"Driving that train/high on cocaine,
Casey Jones you better watch yo' speed".

[Alexis]

[Sparky]

[Torchwood]

Well, the French political elite have long wanted to get rid of the UK, but one is nevertheless surprised that Merkel went along with it. Germany as the chief agent here.

[Colonel Sun]

Perfidious Paris.

La perfide France.

[Sparky]

True - but then again, Sarkozy will be gone in a few months, if polls are to be believed. Will a new (Socialist?) administration be so chummy with Frau Merkel, who is herself less than popular with her people? Will the traditional foreign policy of France continue? More importantly, will The Euro survive? Will the current incarnation of the EU itself survive when the various shameless top down dictats and quasi-coups of Europe's national politicians and Eurocrats are eventually judged at the ballot box by the people of Europe? Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

I think the UK's position might be one of splendid insulation against the growing current of discontent within the EU.

[Sparky]

[the glowing carp]

on the EUKsplosion.

[Sparky]

EU treaty hopes come under strain

By Joshua Chaffin in Brussels, Jan Cienski in Warsaw and Clare MacCarthy in Copenhagen

Franco-German hopes for a sweeping new treaty to bind the region’s economies more closely came under strain on Tuesday as several European Union leaders warned of difficulties pushing a far-reaching pact through their national parliaments.

The pressure was particularly acute in non-eurozone countries, where at least four governments warned that the precise legal text would determine whether they could sign up to the treaty or otherwise join the UK on the sidelines.
Officials in several of those countries said their most pressing concern was whether the new rules giving Brussels powers to police national budgets would be binding only to eurozone governments or to all signatories.

“Right now, there is not much more than a blank sheet of paper and even the name of the future treaty might still change,” said Petr Necas, the prime minister of the Czech Republic. “I think that it would be politically short-sighted to come out with strong statements that we should sign that piece of paper.”

Even inside the 17-member eurozone, cracks emerged, with Irish opposition leaders calling on Enda Kenny, prime minister, to allow a referendum on the new pact – a vote that would almost certainly fail – and pro-EU opposition parties in the Netherlands attacking the minority government of Mark Rutte, prime minister, for his handling of the deal.

“We need to get some clarity on what this treaty might include,” a senior diplomat in Brussels said. “There are so many unanswered questions.”

European leaders have repeatedly insisted the pact’s substance will not be tailored to get through national referendums or parliaments, but growing questions in national capitals could force their hand.

The euro slumped to its lowest level against the dollar since January. The single currency had been losing ground since Friday amid market disappointment at the outcome of the EU summit. Traders said that a seasonal dip in market liquidity had exacerbated the falls.

“Investors were probably waiting to see how the dust settled after the EU summit. Now, they are looking at the policy cupboard and seeing that it’s empty,” said Steven Englander, an analyst at Citi.

Negotiators are expected to hold their first official talks on Thursday, and a first draft is to be distributed to European leaders before the holiday. The hope is that the remaining 26 members of the European Union will sign up to it by March.

Going into Thursday’s summit, French and German leaders said they hoped that the new treaty, in addition to enshrining tough budget rules and punishments for profligate governments, would also reach into other facets of economic policymaking, including taxes, financial regulation and labour markets.

Hungary, which wavered last week before supporting the treaty, does not want to relinquish control over its corporate tax policy. Meanwhile, Sweden, harbours concerns about the possible inclusion of a financial transactions tax in any agreement. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, holds a minority in the parliament, limiting his room to manoeuvre.

Denmark’s prime minister backs the treaty, but is facing opposition from within her own coalition; the Socialist Peoples party, a junior member, has deep eurosceptic roots.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg he was confident the pact would be widely inclusive. “This is not an agreement at 17-plus, but an agreement at 27-minus,” he said.

Mr Barroso said the demands David Cameron, the UK prime minister, made to back the treaty only if the City were protected violated the integrity of the single market and “made compromise impossible”.

Meanwhile, British MEPs felt the chill of their new existence on the fringe of Europe, with parliamentary leaders vowing to challenge the country’s sacrosanct annual rebate from the EU budget and quipping that the UK would be “on the menu” next time it was at Europe’s top table.

Additional reporting by Matthew Steinglass in Amsterdam, Kester Eddy in Budapest, Jamie Smyth in Dublin and Alice Ross in London

[Alexis]

[Colonel Sun]

[Sparky]