Had a most dispiriting experience from an unexpected quarter yesterday.
Asking a friend over here what he thought of the elimination of Britain as an entity and in particular, England, via the Constitution signed during the week by the Traitor Brown [I didn't use that description of course], he flatly denied it had happened because the BBC had not covered it ad nauseam, the way they'd covered, say, the Arafat Funeral.
He gets BBC World News via cable.
Therefore the issue doesn't exist. Whoa! Where to start on the MSM agenda, its ownership and its slant on issues? When we got down to it, his reason for the flat denial was that in the west there is, in his eyes, a vibrant, working democracy where democratically elected leaders carry out democratically approved decisions and though there might be minor problems, his over here are vastly bigger.
A smiling Britain is clearly cheering Brown on and welcoming the EU with open arms. And his clinching argument was that Britain has 70% exports and that I couldn't deny that that was so.
I'm afraid I didn't handle this well and hurriedly concluded the phone conversation.
Later in the day, another chap, a businessman who's been living in Europe this past year, visited and over coffee we discussed the same issue.
Different mentality. Though he's Russian and wouldn't be averse to Russia being brought into the EU economic space [a common view over here], he described two separate direct dealings with the EU and he was far from impressed with the way they operated. He called it "arrogance" and "high-handedness".
I asked: "And how about inefficiency?"
He reflected then added: "Da, da." We both agreed it was a bureaucratic mentality, a mentality which doesn't admit of entrepeneurship but only of compliance with rafts of regulations where one is lost in an ocean of paperwork and Bureauspeak.
Rather than flatly denying that what had happened to Britain had happened, he asked me to explain and this is what I said:
"By signing that Constitution -"
"Treaty."
"That's an issue too - it's a Constitution by any other name. But yes, by signing this "Treaty", a Scot effectively and simultaneously has signed away both England's status as a nation and Britain's sovereignty, in real terms, as anything more than a region of the EU, slowly to take effect over the next 13 years.
For that Scot and many other Celts too, that was a great thing - revenge for the '45, for the castles in Wales and so on."
At this point I gave a potted history of Britain, neither exonerating the Anglo-Saxons either for Cromwell nor the Highland Clearances and zeroing in on Fields of Athenry. Don't forget my mother's side is Celtic.
"But even so, why would the Britons sit back and invite in the "EU monster", as you call it?"
"That's historic too. One of their leaders invited in the Anglo-Saxons in the first place, for equally short-sighted reasons. The carrot in this current day is that each Celtic nation gets to be recognized, [they don't fully appreciate that it's as a satellite region of the EU yet, in all but name], they get to have their own play-parliament and they can pretend they're now a sovereign nation, the money pours in from the EU for much needed infrastructure to replace lost English revenue and England is effectively isolated."
I thought it would be information overload to bring in the West-Lothian question at this point so I went on:
"It's vital for the EU to isolate England because it was always the major obstacle to any European power's strength. 1066 succeeded, the 1588 Armada didn't, the 100 Years War came to nothing, Napoleon failed, as did the Kaiser and Hitler. England has always been under siege, much as Israel is today."
"And the EU wants to break the U.S. connection."
"Exactly. It's not only the destruction of England as an ancient feud - the British/U.S. nexus also has to be broken and NATO as well, so that the continental bloc paradigm holds sway and the 1984 style "constant warfare" scenario can be effected. Hence Merkel's Army, the drive coming form the Bruderheist and other pondlife, hence Milliband's enthusiastic support."
"But England is still strong - it's exports and GDP still ensure it's a powerful opponent."
"Yes, unless there is no England, only nine regions under an EU umbrella."
"But the English wouldn't put up with that."
"Unless countless millions are poured into the nine regions for visible infrastructural improvements and for the relief of unemployment, which has been induced anyway in the first place. I also suspect personal debt relief will come into this somewhere down the track also. That would quell most opposition."
"How?"
"Look at a hypothetical analogy. Russia offers itself to its people as the motherland/fatherland. Pensions and salaries are woeful and gloom abounds. OK, the EU is a shining 1000 Points of Light. Russians have eyes for money and the EU has it.
Now imagine that the EU offered to pour billions into Russian infrastructure to the point where unemployment is greatly reduced, jobs abounded and building projects could be seen everywhere.
The people then have a choice between an idea - being a poor Russian - or living well under the auspices of the EU. Wouldn't you be happy to cede your sovereignty for the moment [always planning to get it back somewhere down the line] in exchange for medium term prosperity?"
"Russians wouldn't put up with that."
"No, they wouldn't. And neither would Americans. So the EU would ensure that the word "Russia" would still exist, just as the SPPNA will ensure that the U.S.A. remains as a concept, long after the organs of state have passed to the NGO called the NAAC from March, 2009. There'd still be token assemblies, there'd still be a Capitol Hill, still be a Westminster and White House, still be a pretence of democratic process in the post-democratic era and the people could rest assured that all was well.
Except for the pesky checkpoints, armed militia, restrictions on travel [for ecological reasons of course], the sheer weight of bureaucratic constraints and all your personal data in central giant computers [the EU's original computer was nicknamed "The Beast"]. Chipped from birth to death and "mentored" your whole life.
Iris scan ID and eventually the successor to patents #5,629,678 and #5,878,155 - the Digital Corp maintenance free, under-the-skin chip security ID, using GPS, which they call the 'Digital Angel' - these would be used to help "protect the free economic space" called the EU."
"I don't believe it."
"Neither did my friend this morning. But you've just come back here from Europe. Was the level of security the same as ten years ago?"
"Go on."
"In the English scenario, the short term benefits of free [but scrutinized] travel within the EU space would suit many Brits, the obscene amounts of money which the British government has simply not ploughed into the infrastructure in past decades, including in education and hospitals - now this money starts to pour in and the benefits of EU membership are apparent to all.
The only people who would rail against it are malcontents now labelled as "English Nationalists"; they do not enjoy universal support from the newly economically pampered people who have become less and less English anyway as unrestricted immigration is rampant and so these "English" then find themselves isolated as "Separatist Insurgents" within their own country. They're now told there's no such thing as a "pure Englishman" anyway."
"I can see how it would look to English eyes but surely it's better to live well than scratch for a living."
"True but why did we have to scratch for a living in the first place? It was induced, that's why. In the 5th largest world economy, there is no need for EU money beyond simple trading within an EEC economic space. How did the idea of an armed Union arise?
Trouble is, many people have themselves travelled in the past few decades and they've seen another life out there beyond English borders - they see a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan life and wouldn't want to go back to the days of Harold Wilson, the coalminers' strike and the Winter of Discontent - just three examples."
"Just as the Russians don't wish to go back to the Soviet Union."
"All of this helps the EU along and people's patriotism for this strange thing called England becomes just words, semantics. It's all been very well done."
"And so?'
"And so nothing. You need another coffee?"