He came to talk to me about British Euroscepticism, and I did my best to explain. I said
it was far stronger in England than Scotland for nationalist reasons, and that although Labour MPs were, in general, mildly Eurosceptic — Brown would not take us into the Euro, for instance
— Euroscepticism was a passion on the Conservative side.
‘I know some of the young MPs who supported Cameron,’ I said. ‘They’re incredibly liberal about gay rights and all the rest of it but on the EU…’
‘They’re not liberal at all…’
I had to explain to him that supporting a Eurozone that is imposing an austerity on Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal that offers them no way to grow out of recession was not, in normal
language, a ‘liberal’ thing to do. If anything Germany’s abhorrence of Keynesian demand boosting measures recalled Herbert Hoover’s Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose
response to the Great Crash of 1929 was to say, ‘liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.’ Only liquidation could ‘purge the rottenness
out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from
less competent people.’
Needless to add, Hoover and Mellon’s uncompromising economic morality ensured that the Great Crash of 1929 turned into the Great Depression of the 1930s.
My Danish colleague found it strange to think that opposing Angela Merkel’s Depression-era economics and puritan desire to purge southern Europe for it sins did not make one a conservative. Quite the contrary, in fact. But the notion that allegiance to the EU makes one a progressive was embedded in his mind as it remains embedded in the minds of most European liberal-leftists.
I can’t see the wishful thinking lasting. The Greeks have already thought their way out of comforting delusions. Demonstrations in Athens are as much against the European Commission as Greek politicians. The Italians and the Irish are catching on. Soon the Portuguese and Spanish will too. When, as is inevitable, the French realise that the EU is imposing a right-wing economic settlement and take to the streets, I will almost feel sorry for Merkel, Sarkozy, Van Rompuy and Barroso.
Almost.
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