Replies

This catalogue of nightmarish proportions is brought home by Dr. Belien’s suggestion that rather than Belgium becoming more European as the European Union has strengthened, rather, the European Union is becoming more Belgian. The pattern is there: a state is being constructed with limited democratic credentials, no basis in actual national feeling (which Dr. Belien states, leads to it having no moral credentials), and is operating on the basis of bribery, namely in the form of subsidies. He suggests that the only thing it lacks is a monarch of the Saxe-Coburgs’ dubious repute to hold it together. He also suggests that the productive nations of the EU, namely Britain, will suffer the fate of Flanders: namely that of being the cash cow, should further European integration succeed.

I don't get it. Queen Elizabeth II is a Saxe-Coburg. The British branch of the family changed its name during World War I. And, well, if the Saxe-Coburgs couldn't manage to bring Europe together economically and politically during the 1800's when they not only sat on the throne of the Belgians, but Great Britain, Portugal, Bulgaria, their own duchy, etc., it's pretty silly to think this EU thing would work any better.

I guess I'll have to read the book to see if Dr. Belien rehashed old gossip or found some new dirt on King Leopold I.