Monetary union was attempted by a different union of nations but in a very similar way to the eurozone; can the latter succeed where the former failed? It was Christmas 1991 when the Soviet Union was formally ended by the Russian Parliament. A month later the Maastricht Treaty was signed which mandated the creation of … More The Future of the Euro – 2
Our previous post ‘celebrated’ the twentieth anniversary of the euro (The State of The Euro); we described how monetary union has failed to increase growth or converge the economies of the eurozone countries. The common currency doesn’t suit the heterogeneous economies of the eurozone equally. Will it fracture the political union it was meant to … More The Future of the Euro – 1
The euro (€) was 20 years old on New Year’s day 2019, so now’s the time to ‘celebrate’ its birthday. The start of another year is also a traditional time for reviewing where we’ve been, where we’re going and for setting quizzes. Let’s do all these things to celebrate the common currency’s emerald anniversary. Our … More The State of The Euro
The third in this series on democracy and the EU’s lack of it. See On Democracy-1 and On Democracy-2 first. Two quotations offer evidence that supports our claim that the EU is founded on contempt for its member nations and disdain for its citizens. “Europe’s nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people … More On Democracy-3
The EU insists that it is democratic. We hold to a stricter definition of this term and in this post we review some of our earlier comments on the EU’s claims. The desire for democracy amongst Europeans is ancient, indeed proverbial: Vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). … More On Democracy-1
Is the EU built to survive? Do MPs respect what their voters expected of them? Does a ‘level playing field’ favour incumbents over their rivals? End of the Rope The EU is unnecessary, there are better and less divisive ways to build a collaborative Continent (ref. Europe versus EU). It is also malign, just try … More Shorties-21
This is true but also a truism, it adds nothing we didn’t know but it’s a slimy statement from anti-Brexiteers. It presumes that leaving the EU will make us poorer without demonstrating it as a fact. It says that we, the voters, didn’t realise this so they, the experts, have a duty to save us … More Nobody Voted to be Poorer
…into that good night… A friend who decided to ask his children how they would like him to vote in the 2016 Referendum will be visiting this week. We keep harping on about this but it really irritates us that Brexit discussions could be banned because our friend might ‘frexit’ our home if we asked … More Do not go gentle
The EU often stresses that it is a rules-based union but it is flexible when it wants to be. If there’s a hard Brexit the EU would expect to have: a hard border in Ireland rather than respect the Belfast Agreement (which says, no hard border and no change to the UK union without consent … More Rules Are Rules
The Economist (TE) in its Charlemagne column of 13 October offers an explanation of why Europe (i.e. the EU) will “…never produce a Google”. https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/10/13/europes-history-explains-why-it-will-never-produce-a-google “Europe lacks large firms in areas like social media, e-commerce and cloud computing comparable in scale to America’s Google and Microsoft, or China’s Alibaba and Baidu.” “Europe’s history explains the … More Empire Building?
This EU Won't Work 