Mark Steyn: Europe Is An Indulgence We Can't Afford

The Telegraph ^ | May 31, 2005 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

The Eurofetishists can't seem to agree their line on this referendum business. On the one hand, the Guardian's headline writer was packing up and heading for the hills — "Europe is plunged into crisis" — and EU leaders warned that "Europe" might cease to function.

Oh, come on. We won't get that lucky.

On balance, Jean-Claude Juncker, the "president" of "Europe", seems closer to the mark in his now famous dismissal of the will of the people: "If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue'."

And if it's a Neither of the Above, he will say "we move forward". You get the idea. Confronted by the voice of the people, "President" Juncker covers his ears and says: "Nya, nya, nya, can't hear you!" There are several lessons worth learning from the French vote. The first is that the Junckers are a big part of the problem.

Only in totalitarian dictatorships does the ballot come with a pre-ordained correct answer. Yet President Juncker distilled the great flaw at the heart of the EU constitution into one straightforward sentence that cut through all the thickets of Giscard's unreadable verbiage. The American constitution begins with the words "We the people". The starting point for the EU constitution is: "We know better than the people."

After that, the rest doesn't matter: you can't do trickle-down nation-building. The British, who've written more constitutions for more real nations than anybody in history and therefore can't plead the same ignorance as President Juncker, should be especially ashamed of going along with this farrago of a travesty of a charade.

-snip-

[Rummyfan]

Thanks Pokey!

Next up, tomorrow the Dutch vote.

[Eighth Square]

Churchill's WW2 comment re 'Charlie Degool' about sums it up. "Charlie is the head of the worlds most consistantly unsucessful army" - actually that could be expanded to unsucessful military. Despite Europe's apparent hatred of all things US, the old world leaders are losing the support of their constituents - interesting.

[finnigan2]

"Churchill's WW2 comment re 'Charlie Degool' about sums it up. "Charlie is the head of the worlds most consistantly unsucessful army"

- I've read that Churchill made a famous quote about Charles DeGaulle. It was: "I've had many crosses to bear during the war but the heaviest of all has been the cross of Lorraine."

[knighthawk]

Ping