====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
I had a quick look at *Lenin's Tomb* in the hope that Richard would have had something to say about the UK & EU spat. Alas he is silent so far on the affair. My only source of commentary here are the Irish Times and the Guardian. Of the two the Guardian is the more important at least in this matter. They are of course openly pro-Europe and have come out strongly against Cameron's use of the veto. That is not to say that the crisis lacks an interesting dimension from an Irish point of view. I noticed the Irish Prime Minister was the only one to kiss Cameron's ass as he strode out of the conference. Almost everyone else was afraid to be seen with him. Ireland it seems is torn between sticking with its still biggest trading partner (UK) or becoming even closer to Europe. I wonder however what it is all about. It would appear that the EU central bureaucracy have made a quite astonishing and undemocratic grab for power. The individual nations have been asked (I think) to surrender power over their economies. No British PM could have signed up to that deal, surely. Yet using the veto has opened up the fear of British isolation. It also has put a genuine strain on the coalition between the Tories and the Lib Dems. The latter are quite happy to see the working class put to the sword, but anything which looks to be anti-EU brings out a sincere squeak of outrage from the LIB-Dems. Their leader too, Clegg, who initially was uncritical of Cameron has to save his own leadership begun to openly criticise his Tory partner. I should note that the gutless wonder himself, Ed Milliband, has also made some critical noises. None of the criticisms though address the fundamentally undemocratic nature of what has been proposed - all power to the bureaucracy. Clegg thinks Cameron could have stalled more and tried to finesse things. Both he and Milliband talk of the dangers of UK isolation. The nationalistic right of the Tory party are leaping with joy. I can almost hear the choruses of *Rule Britannia.* What though is it all about at a deeper level? I hardly have a clue here. There was one comment on the age old British policy in Europe to oppose the European hegemon. In this case it would be once more Germany would it not? Are we heading yet again into a Britain versus Germany thing? Ever since De Gaulle's decision to keep the Germans close, it was always on the cards, was it not, that a Britain versus Germany & France thing would develop. The UK response to the EU has also been contradictory but perhaps it could be summed up in the phrase "in it [EU] but not of it". The crisis of the Euro has brought all those tensions and contradictions to the surface. I guess what I want to know, is something very serious going on? Is British capital trapped between the choice of capitulating to the Germans or attempting to go it alone? There is no empire to go back to. The "special" relationship that the UK claimed to have with the USA does not appear to be worth a bucket of spit in this case. If anything the Americans seems to be on the side of the Germans and the French. Hoping for some comment and enlightenment comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
