As the leaders of the 27 European Union countries met for the summit last Friday, many had hopes of David Cameron going over with demands for the city of London that would have brought some powers back home from Brussels. David would demand certain protections for the City of London including repealing the proposed Tobin tax and rightly so, considering that the City is in itself greater than 10% of the United Kingdom's entire GDP.
Our gallient Knight was riding off to Euroland, not so Far Far away and potentially would come back a hero.
At the time I was reminded somewhat of Alan Turing, the incredible genuius that in the second World War managed to crack the code of the Inigma Machine and effectively was the mind behind the Worlds first ever computer, Collossus.
While Turings efforts helped us to win the War and some say shorted the entire duration of the war by some two years. Truly a hero that saved Millions of lives? You would think so. But far from a heros welcome back while trying to do the right thing and reporting a theft, calling the police himself, we was prosecutted for Gross Indeceny, or rather for the fact that he was, shock horror, a Homosexual. (Thankfully how far we have come). Sadly Turing was sentenced to Chemical Castration, which effectively started to alter his genius brain and on 8th June 1954, he took his own life and poisoned himself with Cyanide.
Would David Cameron go forth and help to save the EU & the Euro, only to come home and be prosecutted by his own party members or the British folk as a whole and loose his Political head? Or did we all have our heads high in the sky and over ambitious expectations?
Of course, we all know the outcome. France & Germany, the powerhouses (Bullys) both refuse to budge on the Financial Services Protection David wanted for our fair land. I wonder how France and Sarcozy would feel if the issue on the table were reversed and they were cornered and asked to give up all the farming subsidies that they have always enjoyed? The shoe would surely be on the other foot no?
Was David right in using his Veto? Will we now be outcast and sat on the verges as Europe heads towards closer Fiscal Union and are we better off out than in? For often in History the best of intentions have turned sour. The poor folk of Pompei as Versuvius erupted headed for shelter and the beach only to be killed by the pyroclastic flow.
Maybe we are better off on the outer edges as Europe works on trying to fix a broken leg with nothing more than a Band Aid.
The Veto now leaves us outside of the War Room and as each of the remaining 26 Member States head back to try to push the changes through their own governments since the Veto I can not help but wonder how long it will be before the first member state leaves the EU. I always thought or rather suspected that it would be Greece who clearly need to devalue their currency to make themselves more competitive, but now I almost wonder if the first to exit will be the UK?
The straw to break the camels back is the £2.9 Billion rebate Mrs Thatcher rightly guaranteed us. After all, the UK is the second largest contributer to the EU Budgets. Of course Gordon Brown gave much of it up, (Another fine mess he got us into), but as they threaten to take back our rebate I can't help but think the £50 Billion membership fee could be better spent at home fixing our own problems. Was the Veto right? Who knows?
The Mayan's & Nostradamas predicted Armageddon on the 21st December 2012. Could it actually rather be the end of the EU as we know it?
