As my older readers, and my archive checker, 'JK', will confirm, I have long maintained that it will probably be Italy that acts as a catalyst for the final disintegration of the euro. However, as Peter Oborne tells us in The Telegraph, they may need a little help from their friends like Greece. Even so, the end is not only nigh but absolutely and definitely inevitable!
It [Marxist theory] elegantly explains why European Monetary Union was destined to fail. The state socialists and former communists who invented the euro never got to grips with this aspect of Marxist thought. Only Conservatives with an intelligent appreciation of economics and history – an enlightened congregation that included Margaret Thatcher, Oliver Letwin, Peter Lilley, Tim Congdon, John Redwood, Nicholas Ridley and Alan Walters – grasped that the EMU would collapse under the weight of its own contradictions, and that it was folly to construct a single currency before the political conditions were in place.
Meanwhile the European elite who advocated the euro (British representatives included Michael Heseltine, Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander, at the time only a cadet member of the European political class, so perhaps the chief secretary can be forgiven) ignored all warnings. Indeed, Lord Mandelson is still advocating British membership!
The fact that it is the philosophy of Karl Marx which spells out the errors in the euro currency phantasy is simply too, too, delicious! Peter Oborne lays on the lash with real feeling:
It is impossible to exaggerate the arrogance, the bone-headed stupidity and above all the brutality and callousness of these Europhiles. Their demented attempt to impose a new economic model on an unworkable political structure has already caused untold suffering. At the heart of their project is an audacious attempt to prove the primacy of politics over economics. Bear in mind that it is an experiment for which the European elite personally do not have to pay a price.
Even so, it has amazed me that the people of Europe, particularly 'the Meds', have been so docile for so long:
The Italian economy is moribund, social cohesion has vanished and Italians are starting to turn venomously on immigrants. The Greek economy has shrunk by 30 per cent, and one quarter of the population is out of work. Youth unemployment in Spain stands at an unspeakable 50 per cent.
We are talking about tens of millions of ruined lives, and busted dreams. This reality has already brought about a convulsion in Europe. Entirely new political parties have emerged, from the far-Left and far-Right, brought into existence by a common scream of despair against a broken system.
The fact that many of them are turning to extremists parties of the Right and Left is very worrying - we have been here before! Oborne predicts that the break-up is not far off and that when it occurs the likes of Greece, Italy and Spain will depart but, more interestingly, he suggests that France will swallow its (not inconsiderable) pride and join together with Belgium and a few others to form a new country under German leadership - what I have been calling for years the New Frankish Empire! Here's the Old Frankish Empire:
I bow to Peter Oborne's very much more superior knowledge but I'm not sure the French would go for yet another surrender to Germany. In my opinion, they are more likely to try and form a coalition of 'the Meds' - led by them, of course! Anyway, the end of the euro is fast approaching and the soner the better. If it begins before next May then 'Dave' and the Tories will be a shoo-in!