At last, 'Mutti' Merkel is on the way out! Not, I hasten to add, that she was a bad woman, on the contrary, she mainly steered a steady ship of state along a fairly straight course whilst, quite properly, always remembering that the interests of Germany came first. Her greatest error, in fact, came when she lost sight of that imperative and invited every Tom, Dick and Harry, or more precisely, every Abdul, Ishmael and Ahmed to stroll into Germany and Europe. Also, the brutal treatment of Greece meted out entirely at the request of the stupid euro-fanatics in Brussels is now reverberating in both Britain and Italy, to say nothing of Eastern Europe. To judge her record accurately, we must wait for the history books to be written - 'I should live so long my life already'!
What I just read says Mutti intends to serve out her term until 2021? That's too long. Germany must act like they want to survive as a liberal Western State.
Posted by: Whitewall | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 11:33
Yes, Whiters, I just heard that on the news and I didn't realise she was hanging on for that long!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 12:15
Merkel was an East German politician who continued to follow the Frankfurt School of thought after reunification and her elevation to high political office. Unfortunately for Europe, almost every other EU politician is following the same path, electing their own when an incumbent stands down. See how many tenets of the FS have either been enshrined in law, accepted by society in general, or being gradually introduced.
Posted by: Penseivat | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 13:24
"Her greatest error, in fact, came when she lost sight of that imperative and invited every Tom, Dick and Harry, or more precisely, every Abdul, Ishmael and Ahmed to stroll into Germany and Europe."
Then how come she lost more votes to the Greens, the most pro-immigration party in the Fatherland, than the AfD?
Shorely shome mishtake?
But more to the point: Was there ever a better time for Blighty to turn the boats about and do a D-Day instead of a Dunkirk? The Jerries are on their tits, the Froggies in "we hate the president / lowest poll ever" mode, and the resistance favourable to Blighty abounds like never before (or at least since the real deal): The Scannies, Baltics, Ost-Blokkers, Club-Medders.
We could be putting in EU2 on the Anglo-Saxon model and bringing in Uncle Sam on a super-FTA - imagine the much needed, overdue, and well deserved Gawd-Almighty arse kicking (glad you said "kicking" ... Ed) the NHS would get from some yankee operational management. Even the Ozzies and Kiwis would get a proper look-in to the EU market. In fact, all the great and the good from the West.
Waited patiently for this opportunity for 45 years.
But alas, no.
Good call 23rd June 2016.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 17:44
Here's EU2, btw ...
1. Membership: US, Canada, UK, EU states, Israel, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Oz, NZ.
2. Single market including freedom of movement.
3. Euro disbanded and the entire 1+ trillion Euros of the Target2 debt dumped onto the Jerries for taking the piss for the last however long the Euro has been in existence.
4. Magna Carta and the English Common Law to replace Code Napoleon and all derivatives thereof (keeps the Gaffer on side).
5. Nord Stream 2 cancelled, and shale gas terminals constructed in every state to receive US shale LNG exports.
6. NATO 2% obligations enforced by threat of immediate expulsion, and all states who've underpaid for the last decade to make good the difference.
7. Foreign policy to be determined by an executive where each state gets power in proportion to its total spend on defence as a proportion of the total defence spend of EU2.
8. Nationalisation abolished.
9. The exception to prove the rule is that Farnborough airport will in fact be nationalised, for the exclusive use of long-legged, pert-breasted, high-cheek-boned, inky-blinky darlinkies, who will be given their own personal super-liner, free of charge, to shuttle back and forth (more forth than back) to the Camberley, Frimley, and Farnborough area of Surrey and Hampshire, 24x7, from all points Ost.
10. If you insist, a damn great wall, to be constructed by the Don, around the whole damn lot for the forseeable future.
SoD's "EU2 Ten Commandments".
Something in there for everyone, I feel. Call me progressive or what?
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 18:17
SoD,
Not a bad plan, but it will have to wait until 2020:
"President says EU ‘almost as bad as China, just smaller’"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/trump-makes-clear-eu-won-t-escape-his-ire-over-trade-for-long
Btw, it's not clear he excludes the UK from the EU. He's just declared himself a "nationalist" you know.
Posted by: Bob | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 20:21
I'm sure I could talk him round - that's a bloody big wall for his construction companies to get their teeth into.
And all that shale energy would square up the trade deficit nicely.
And getting 2% NATO spend out of the euros, that'd land him a pat on the back and an X in the box from a fair few rightfully cheesed off folks.
He'd be happy as Larry.
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Monday, 29 October 2018 at 20:40
Will the EU pay for the wall? Mexico seems somewhat reluctant to finance the one on our southern border.
Posted by: Bob | Tuesday, 30 October 2018 at 15:57
"Will the EU pay for the wall?"
We already are - 3bn Euros ...
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/mar/26/scheme-cash-transfer-turkey-1m-refugees-eu-aid
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 31 October 2018 at 06:34
In fact, that's a good bit of ammo you just left on the battlefield there, Bob.
We see exactly how resilient, responsive, and problem solving endowed the EU governance machine is ...
One of the states, in this case Merkel's Fatherland, drops an enormous existential threatening bollock and throws open the gates to Vienna. Cataclysm. And yet a couple of years later - problem solved, all sorted, no problem. How'd that happen then? The EU executive just went out there and did it, sorted it, no problemo. Swept up Merkel's messy poo.
A bit like one of those well oiled, pumpin' on gas, Panzer Kampfgruppes on the Ostfront, that used charge about shoring up all the defences whenever and wherever one of the Wehrmacht divisions had messed up and the Rooskies had made a breakthrough. The "Fire brigade" I think the Jerries used to call them.
Now, just think about what the Westminster crew would have made of a humongous challenge like that? Clues: A couple of decades to pass a fix hunting ban, anyone? BoJo? Jezza?
It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 31 October 2018 at 07:06
Fix hunting ban = Fox hunting ban
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Wednesday, 31 October 2018 at 07:09
SoD, luckily I don't have to consider, in any but a theoretical way, the incompetence in Westminster. It would drive one bonkers if added to the incompetence constantly beamed from Washington.
Actually, the EU paying to keep refugees in Turkey isn't all that different from the US using NAFTA to boost the Mexican economy on an average of, if I remember correctly, about 3% a year. While it's been a huge success in lowering the number of illegal border crossings into the US, it's generated predictable negative effects for US labor, not all of it low-skilled. Trump has shown considerable talent in putting the situation to his political advantage. Some of your politicians have proven to be just as adept.
Posted by: Bob | Wednesday, 31 October 2018 at 15:18