DISCALIMER: Apologies for this post being s few days late. I did have an original post in mind for Wednesday, however I decided to scrap it because I did not think it was of good quality and since then I have been monumentally busy.
I appreciate that this is probably the boldest headline I have done so far on my blog. However, it is a statement that I every passing day I spend living on this continent that I start to think is more and more true.
We have the swashbuckling, ciggie loving Nigel Farage in one corner who enjoys long pints down the pub after a hard day’s work shouting at the European parliament. Other hobbies the leader of the UK Independence party can put on his political dating advert. This includes slagging of those in the media when more questionable aspects of the party are being held to account. This reached fever pitch recently after the Channel 4 mockumentary “UKIP: The first hundred days” was broadcast. The show which used a combination of archive footage and scripted scenes drew over 1000 complaints from viewers for being “propaganda” rather than the only complaint that should be levelled on it which is it was “a bit rubbish”. Of course if he is still looking for things to do Farage can rely on his favourite past time of saying his party isn’t racist but then sacking members of it for being…well…racist.
Then in the other corner we have Angela Merkel who has been relishing in her current role as de facto leader of the European Union, Why? Because her country are the ones with the money. Therefore, if the EU is all about money (which at the minute it is) then that suits Mrs Merkel just fine because she is the one that has it. What effect has this had on the EU? It’s why Junker is in power at the EU now because any challenge regardless of ideology is swept aside because no small EU nation wants to take on the might of Germany. It’s also why countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal are still in financial instability. Because whilst there was some support for an end to austerity from the A8 countries that couldn’t shift the might of the economic powerhouse that has more MEPs than any other country. Germany consistently and vocally insisted that these countries continued austerity measures despite debts rising because of them. A decision that looks like it has set the EU back years. A decision so grave that it even unites me and Mr. Farage (this does not happen often believe me). Merkel is also the one who has been representing the EU during the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine. Resulting in ceasefire continued carnage and whilst this isn’t exactly her fault the fact that some parties were so easily duped by Putin makes you wonder how some of our heads of state ever reached the pinnacle of their countries’ political systems. Merkal has been the head of German politics for a decade now and is knocking on the door of Maggie Thatcher as the longest serving female leader in Europe. Yet Thatcher knew that the clock was ticking and opinion polls tumbled for the Baroness throughout her 3rd term causing her to resign. Merkal still for the minute has the benefit of public support yet in a similar way to Thatcher in parts of the UK. Merkel’s premiership of Germany and in a sense the EU will cause polarising views depending on where you live.
And then we have us in-between; the ones effected most by the policies of our national government and the EU parliament. These effects have been political extremism seen throughout the EU. From the blight of EDL protests in the UK to the rise of parties such as the French National Front and Golden Dawn in Greece. Causing the rather non-issue of immigration before the economic crash to become such a political black hole that you cannot talk about it being a net gain without being called a communist or it being a net loss without being called a racist. The lack of sensible discussion about immigration in the 00’s has caused extremism from this topic to spread to all forms of politics and now extremism that was once extreme is now dangerously becoming the ideological battlegrounds throughout the EU and is now causing these extremes to enter the fabrics of society. We’ve seen this as recently as this week when a disgusting minority of Chelsea FC supporters who were GUESTS in Paris denied a French citizen right to use public transport. Football hasn’t had an easy relationship with society at times via violence and racism but would this honestly happen ten even 20 years ago? When the world had cash in its wallet and food on its table? Or has the cancer of political extremism that has weaved itself into the European Parliament now rewoven itself into the beautiful game? The EU has done many great things, however not dealing properly with the credit crunch and not educating its citizens about migration has been a catastrophic failure that could have put the union beyond repair.
So where does that leave us then? Well I’m very much in two minds about the EU at the minute. I’ve always been a keen fan of it yet the issues I mentioned before have made me feel rather disillusioned with its internal functions. I feel disillusioned that extremist parties have been able to enter the parliament in large numbers so easily and this has only brought the European Parliament to a standstill and no one representing the mainstream EU parties seems to mind. I feel disillusioned at the EU’s economic standing in the world since the EU for all its economic flaws would be the largest economy in the world if it was merged into one large economy. However, I feel that no politician in the EU has this attitude and constant bickering over who gives Greece it’s recovery money or who saves Ireland from economic extinction back in the day doesn’t sound like a union that has a bigger economy than the most famous union in the world. And now I also feel disillusioned at the EU’s ability to govern and educate its own people mainly thanks to the party extremism and economic mismanagement that has left people poor, angry and uneducated about key affairs.
However, I do rather like the idea of the nations of Europe being united but I believe it’s time for us to hit the reset button. The EU in its current state cannot work. It serves the needs of the larger economies too much and cripples people who have had the misfortune of being born in a smaller economic nation in Europe. We need a rethink about how social and economic policies are created and conducted in the EU parliament in order to curb political extremism that has fuelled the fire of anger amongst citizens of the old world and with uncle Vlad still not playing ball we need to rethink our current union before a much more dangerous one rears its ugly head from Europe’s past.