How the EU could collapse in 2016 Don Pearce’s Snippets

Milestones to the Kingdom

In association with Bro Don Pearce (Rugby UK)  Keep up to date with Bro Don’s Snippets – Email Don at [email protected]  Just put in the subject line ‘Snippets Request’ state if you would prefer word doc or pdf format. ( If not stated, both will be sent as samples so you can decide) It’s that easy! Below is an extract from today’s 1st Jan which covers (29-31st Dec 2015)

But the EU cannot resolve this relentless economic crisis because it is a part of the problem. The single currency was never a really an economic initiative. On the contrary, it was a political instrument to further the federalist agenda. Forcing together economies as disparate as Germany and Greece was always doomed to result in debt and paralysis.

So far the political consequences of this economic catastrophe have largely been limited to Italy and Greece, where anger at the terms of the EU bailouts has led to upheaval and extremism. And the Greek Government is about to plunged into another crisis as the radical Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras grapples with daunting task of trying to reform the country’s unaffordable pensions system.

But the political fallout from the eurozone could soon extend far more widely, ratcheting up the scope for conflict. Following elections in October, Portugal is now governed by a Socialist minority Government that is propped up by the Left Bloc, a movement that urges mass civil disobedience against austerity, and the Portuguese Communist Party, which takes a traditionally Marxist, anti-capitalist line. Spain is heading in the same direction after the recent General Election.

The impending clash on economic policy will be compounded by the continuing migration disaster, which is threatening to tear apart the social fabric of Europe. Instead of defending European civilisation, the EU has been a vehicle for destruction of our heritage and identity through its obsession with open borders and cultural diversity. Just before Christmas, it was reported that more than one million migrants have reached Europe through irregular means in 2015, nearly all of them from across the eastern Mediterranean. Already unsustainable, that influx will continue to grow during 2016. Having sneered at patriotism, derided the concept of national sovereignty and made a fetish of free movement, the EU can do nothing to turn the tide.

“Instead of defending European civilisation, the EU has been a vehicle for destruction of our heritage and identity”

That is certain to lead to ever more profound disillusion with the EU, as reflected in the growth of fiercely anti-immigration, anti-EU movements like the Front National in France, the Dutch Party for Free and the Swedish Democrats. But anger could turn to open rebellion in 2016 if the migrant crisis leads to a series of Islamist terror attacks. Isil have openly boasted about sending jihadists into Europe through the EU porous borders, while the Lebanese minister has claimed that 1 in every 50 Syrian refugees could be an Isil extremist.

Should the worst happen, all the rhetoric from the EU about peace and unity will sound offensively hollow. It is easy to imagine how mass rallies for the victims of terrorism could turn into demonstrations against Brussels, with the Eurocrats left as bewildered and frightened as Nicolae Ceausescu was when confronted with a hostile crowd in Bucharest in 1989, shortly before the collapse of his regime.

Carnage on the streets could be the ultimate symbol of their failure, and the catalyst for their downfall.Rather than protect Europeans, the EU itself has become the greatest threat to our continent

Arrogance, stubbornness and complacency have characterised the response of Brussels to David Cameron’s strategy for renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the European Union. In advance of the British referendum on membership, which must be held by the end of 2017, the Prime Minister has asked for only the most modest package of reforms. Yet the unbending EU leaders have refused to concede any ground. Even a minor change in migrants’ rights to claim welfare has been rejected.

Such a defiant stance could be seen as supreme confidence in the European project. British calls for change are dismissed out of hand because nothing is allowed to challenge the drive towards “ever closer union.” In the dogmatic mindset of the EU’s ruling elite, the ultimate triumph of the federal superstate is an inevitability.

“2016 could be the year that the EU falls apart, making the British referendum an irrelevance”

But this mood of self-assurance is grossly misplaced. The reality is that, despite the dismissiveness towards Cameron’s modest plan, the EU is in desperate trouble. The edifice of federalism is crumbling, broken by its own ruinous contradictions and spectacular failures. The creators of the European Union promised to bring peace and prosperity. But through their grandiose folly, they have fuelled only debt, despair and disintegration.

The EU lacks any kind of democratic legitimacy, which means that the end could come sooner than the politicians imagine. After all, the apartheid regime in South Africa collapsed with dramatic suddenness in the early 1990s, as did the Communist governments of Russia and eastern Europe in the late 1980s.

2016 could be the year that the EU falls apart, making the British referendum an irrelevance. Economics are certain to play a central part in any process of collapse. Despite endless optimistic propaganda from Brussels and ever greater fiscal control from the centre, the euro’s difficulties have not disappeared. Growth remains anaemic, just 0.3 per cent in the third quarter of the year, while dole queues are as long as ever. Unemployment in Spain, sometimes held up to as a eurozone “miracle”, stands at 23 per cent. In Greece, the figure is above 25 per cent.

 

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