Quote:
Originally Posted by Bewolf
What lack of communality? You are projecting the UK's special situation as an island onto the countries of the continent. Most areas and people have been under one rulership or another, starting with the roman empire. There is a commonly shared and ongoing history of direct interaction and exchange for millenia, unrivaled anywhere else in the world.
There even is a common religion which was equally practiced eveywhere and the philisophical and ethical code coming with that.
Populations living at the borders of two countries often are more like one each other then people living on the borders to other countries. The same applies to ethnitices, which only corrolate superficially with dominant cultures. Most "differences" are simply based on the faith of being different, not actual differences. You will find when you move to other european countries that they differ in customs, not in basic values.
Added to that, we are not living in the 19th century anymore. There are countries coming up whose basic values differ to a far greater degree and the pontential to surpass any european nation with economic power by several multitudes, China the most prominent one.
Compared to these, Europe is a highly integrated cultural area and is seen at that in other parts of the world. That includes the UK.
You do not think one country alone, even the UK or Germany, stands a chance to counter that development alone in the long run, do you?
Finally, about the Euro. That stuff you talk about is bollocks. And it has become a self runner without anybody looking at how thbings really are. Portugal, Spain, Ireland, parts of the eastern european countries and also Germany have benefited enourmously from the Euro.
Even today the southern european countries, despite all the declines, are still leagues above from where they started out initially. Portugal was a Morocco style country before joing the EU and eventually the Euro.
The problem does not lie in the currency itself, it lies in it's basic construction, exposed by the collaps of an anglo saxon financial system, a system that helped a country like Greece fudge it's numbers into the Euro.
P.S. A little observation. Never in my life have I seen so much news coverage over the interiour politcal developments of other european countries. It's the same in any given eeuropean country currently I think. We have long reached the stage of european interiour politics in a strained and nerve wrecking situation without anybody by now even having gotten the idea to mobilize. Tell me what you want, but given european history, that is an achievement all by itself. I also prefer peace over capitalism.
|
There's no need for swearing just because you disagree.
I have friends in Germany and France plus a few other states. They agree with me.
The only country that has 'benefited' from the Euro is Germany. Remember how many Mercs and BMWs were sold to Greece on loans when they joined the Euro?
That was fine then. But now, feelings towards Greece have changed somewhat in Germany.
Best Regards from a Non-Swearing
,
MB_Avro.