The People are Wrong
Democracy is a wonderful thing. Governments are chosen by us, and then do their own thing for a few years until we chose them again or throw them out. The public is denied their wishes in areas like capital punishment, that the elite don't like, yet are used as an excuse to bring in bad legislation, with the simple phrase, its the will of the people.
Nowhere is this two faced behaviour more evident than over the issue of the EU. Whilst the majority may not wish to leave (yet), it is clear that most Brits think we have already gone too far, a fact that has not impeded further integration.
Now, 7 years on from the introduction of the Euro, those unlucky citizens of the countries that murdered their old currencies, are deeply unhappy.
Two thirds of Germans now prefer the Deutschmark to the euro and more than half believe that the European single currency has damaged their country's economy.
To which there can only be one response:
But the European Commission insists that ordinary people are simply failing to grasp the benefits of the single currency.
So they screw up and blame it on us Serfs. Why not just dissolve the people and choose another one?
10 comments:
The benefit, Mr. Serf, is that taly can no longer drop its interest rate whenever it feels a crisis coming on.
Germany is bouncing with its economy today as a result of the bravery of the Italian politicians.
Gary
Doesn't say much for the intelligence of the Europeans that they couldn't see how the endgame would play out re Euro. But then they have past form re dumb moves don't they?
Some idiot from the New statesman was arguing on Today prog that UK should join the Euro(!)
As the US Bard once said 'They care not to come up any higher but would rather get you donwn in the hole that they are in'.
There must be many people in Germany and France today who wish they had retained the Deutschmark and the Franc and the flexibility that comes from a floating currency and your own interest rate. Blair is still a true believer in the euro I dare say....
The benefit, Mr. Serf, is that Italy can no longer drop its interest rate whenever it feels a crisis coming on.
So we launched an EU wide straight jacket, to punish Italian indiscipline. Its a strange motivation.
The Italians don't mourn for the Lira. They wish they'd dollarised instead.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/01/18/cneuro18.xml
>>Italy has its version in the Valchius Valley, in the Alps. <<
I suspect this is a reference to the Valchiusella north of Torino, wher I used to live, and the very limited "currency" of the Damenhur community there. Up in the Valchiusella however, they never really "took" to Italy, as they still speak Piemontese, and regard the unification of Italy as a foolish prank that will soon go wrong.
I can't see why it's such a strange motivation Mr. Serf, after all, your mortgage would be halved by the Euro and inflation at a steady rate instead of this one.
I'm unconvinced of MPC superiority over the ECB who seem to be getting it more right than our more wrong.
The MPC is within an ace (0.1%) of ruining Gordon Brown's whole career and life.
Tell me that Gordon is a happy man, Mr. Serf.
Gary
I can't see Britain ever converting to the Euro as we don't see ourselves as European as much as those on the continent.
We al have different economies driven by local indicators, it would be a mess. lets keep out.
Mark
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The public already has no control over monetary policy as its decided by an independent central bank. This is the neo-liberal consensus - that issues such as monetary policy are not suited to democratic pressures. I'm puzzled as to why the Euro gets this criticism levelled at it constantly (that it's not democratic) yet we rarely hear anything about our own independent central bank.
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