Why hasn't the other shoe dropped?

The exultant doom-sayers, which includes me, who happily forecast the demise of the euro-bloc have been proved wrong.  My fingers tremble with impotent fury as I type this but we were wrong and the proof is 'just over there' where the EU staggers on but with signs of increased vigor.  It may be that the euro-bloc will simply totter into a long Japanese-style period of deflation but, dammit, it will exist!  Simon Nixon at the WSJ has an interesting article explaining it in economic terms but for me the real surpise has come from 'The People' - dread words!  I assumed that they would revolt in fury against their leaders who, just as ours did all those years ago, conned them into this "German racket".  But apart from a bit of stone-throwing in Athens and Madrid, mostly organised by trade unions because that's all they're good for, 'The People' have mostly remained quiescent.

Of course, where I went wrong was in subconsciously assuming that my inherent dislike of the whole rotten European edifice was shared at heart by many Europeans.  Big mistake!  It is obvious now that whilst most of them might grumble a bit, the fact is that they mostly quite like it, indeed, they prefer it to rule by their own (mostly rotten and/or useless) politicians.  This, I believe, is why they are prepared to put up with German rules and regulations diffused via Brussels because that is preferable to anything coming from their own parliaments.

You may have gathered from my scribblings that my opinion of most of our Westminster politicians varies betweeen hopeless, hapless and helpless but I would grit my teeth and put up with their absurdities rather than succumb to rules laid down by the Berlin-Brussels axis.  There-in, I think, lies the difference between us and them.

 

Comments

[H]

Yes, well, it's the case, is it not, that almost all the (other) Europeans have faced an existential crisis of one sort or another within living memory, which they were unable to solve without outside help (National Socialism, German invasion, fascism, civil war, rule by colonels, communism etc. etc.). The Swiss avoided all that and the EU too. Only the Swedes, it seems to me, of the current members can claim a reasonably tranquil recent history, and they will have to speak for themselves!

[David Duff]

Another factor, 'H', is that many of the people in the Med countries are wise enough to operate cash-only economies precisely in order to avoid the corruption and waste by government.

Also, I was taken with Mr. Nixon's opinion that the austerity insisted on by Berlin is absolutely forcing the Med governments to put their houses in order. The minute the European Bank starts buying individual government bonds they'll be back to their bad old ways.

Sometimes I wish the markets would put a real squeeze on us and force Osborne & Co to live within their (our) means!

[Antisthenes]

You are spot on DD. However I believe another factor is that we now have a culture of entitlement and dependency brought about by politicians promising everything and anything to gain power and keep it. To keep this promise requires wholesale redistribution of wealth we see this domestically with public sector jobs and state hand outs all paid for with taxpayers money. We also see it in how the EU operates in that richer nations are subsidising poorer ones and when the euro-zone crisis happened how richer nations stood surety for the ones worst hit. Greece and others recognise that as badly hit as they were without the EU or had they renounced the euro in favour of their own currency it would have been a considerably lot worse in the short term at least and at the end of the day they also know that the EU will keep passing them other peoples even if they are unlikely to ever pay it back.

[JK]

Ahoy Duff!

Figured you could use a little cheering up.

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/29512

[john malpas]

You must have noticed you live in a tower of babel. There are no 'people'. Just a people parking lot.

[David Duff]

The lesson of that tale, JK, is don't mess with Cambridge swots - as DM will confirm!

But the most gloomy truth, Antis, is that we get the government and politicians we deserve.

"Just a people parking lot"! John, I never thought of life like that before. It sounds like something out of 'Waiting for Godot'!

[dearieme]

JK's link is a wonderful coincidence, because I was chatting on Saturday with a Cambridge swot who told me about ancient Chinese musical instruments, especially a set of bells, and lamenting the lack of knowledge about what music was played on them. Whether the music in that book is as ancient as the bells I rather doubt, but disgracefully the university website doesn't tell us how old the "ancient" music might be.

[JK]

S'not exactly a coincidence DM.

(But thanks for verifying our surveillance techniques seem promising.)