Today we heard that Cameron had vetoed the use of the European Union's Treaties to resolve the economic problems of 17 of its members who have formed a "Eurozone". The BBC and some of the press have reacted to this by saying that Britain will be marginalized, outside the club, on the periphery of Europe or in the slow lane of a two speed Europe.
The 'marginalization' argument is peculiar because had the UK been in the Eurozone in 2008 the scale of our losses would have brought the Euro crashing down and started a global depression. The UK had far larger and worse problems than Greece and was host to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which had become, briefly, the largest and one of the most insolvent banks in the world. Even the most ardent European Unionist must admit that without the UK's ability to devalue and set its own financial policy Europe, and the world, would have been locked into a total catastrophe. That Britain was outside "the club" was the luckiest of escapes for everyone. Yet the kamikaze journalists want us to be in "the club".
The Eurozone has been very bad for the UK, it has permitted Germany, France and the Benelux countries to use a currency that is hugely undervalued so that they can export to other countries by undercutting local prices. The UK had a trade deficit of about £46 billion pounds with the Eurozone last year as a result of the undervalued Euro. Had the Euro been a true national currency the Northern countries of the Eurozone would have had to pay huge amounts of extra tax to the South for the social consequences of the monetary union. This extra tax would have made the Northern economies less competitive and saved the UK from the large trading deficit with the rest of the EU. The Northern countries of the Eurozone, especially Germany, want it all. They want to avoid paying for the effects of monetary union in the South and yet want to allow the Euro to be devalued by the weakness of the South so that they can export, preying on the other countries of Europe and the world.
Make no mistake, the Northern European Eurozone countries are acting in their own interests. In the negotiations yesterday the Eurozone was trying to involve the entire European Union in paying to temporarily cure their own economic problems. The main component of this temporary cure was a financial transactions tax that would involve the UK in donating about £20-40 billion pounds annually to the Empire. The UK would get nothing in return except for a temporary easing of the euro crisis and would be financially ruined. The UK cannot sustain the £70 billion annual trade deficit that would result from the effects of this tax on the City of London.
There are two paths opening out before us. In the first the Eurozone undergoes a sudden collapse and there is a global depression due to the banking crisis resulting from defaults on Eurozone government bonds and in the second the Eurozone becomes a fiscal union and eventually a political union. Will the fiscal and political union create a new nation? Yes and no, it will create a nation but not a new nation. It will resurrect an old nation, the Holy Roman Empire, that was dismembered in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and consisted of northern France, Germany, Austria, Western Poland and Northern Italy (ever wondered why the Northern French and Italians were a a "bit Germanic"? The Europeans think they have been in a civil war since the break up - see Europaische burgerkrieg anyone? Or how the Germans lost the European Civil War in 1945.). The consequences of a re-formed Holy Roman Empire are not all bad. The Northern region of Germany, France and Benelux will need to subsidise the South and this will ease our trade balance with Europe.
I believe that these old national boundaries, such as Wales, Scotland, Basque Territory, Bosnia etc. have an irresistible attraction for their populations. The Holy Roman Empire will be re-formed despite the efforts of the English and Russians to prevent this for the past 400 years. When it is reborn the UK should seriously consider leaving the EU because we will cease to have any influence and European policy will be set to benefit the bulk of the population in the Empire. As an independent, offshore haven we will benefit enormously from leaving. Certainly we will be able to stop Europeans moving into the UK to fill many of the new jobs that are created - in the year to September 2011 the number of non UK nationals in employment rose by 147,000 and the number of UK nationals in employment fell by 280,000 (ONS Labour Market Statistics: November 2011). This makes it impossible to deliver economic recovery to British workers.
If you doubt that the Euro was about political union consider this paper published by the European Central Bank in 1999:
"So what does the future hold? Anyone who believes in the role of a single currency as a pace-setter in achieving political unity (Europe will be created by means of a single currency or not at all (Jacques Rueff 1950)) will regard the decisive step as has having already been taken. This does not provide an answer as to how the "rest" of the journey should be approached. " Europe: common money - political union? September 1999
Some might say that we should join the Holy Roman Empire. This is a pipe dream. The reborn Empire would not have us - they are not stupid and realise that we would destabilise the whole project. The Empire might try to extract as much cash out of us as possible before we leave of our own accord. Certainly the Marxists of the Labour Party are daft enough to confuse a nationalist project such as the rebirth of the Empire with their internationalist, dystopian dream of a globalized world and so we may be ruined. It is in no-one's interest for the UK to be part of the Empire. If the Holy Roman Empire is reborn then it will expel Greece, Portugal, Ireland and other peripheral states over the next 20 years. These countries will become basket cases in the new state and will just be an endless drain on the taxpayers of the Empire.
The stability of the global economy depends upon its operation as a fairly large number of loosely coupled economies. It is the same with national economies, they work because they are formed of a large number of loosely coupled corporations and businesses. If this is ignored neither the national nor global economies will work and we will end up with grinding poverty and a global tyranny. This was the lesson of the failure of communism - turn a nation into a single economic entity and it declines and does not deliver prosperity. OK, the Holy Roman Empire is a cultural and economic unit so can be a viable nation but we should not all try to join it and bring ourselves and them to ruin.
The English should notice that France and Germany will try to portray the Euro crisis as a result of Britain blocking the necessary changes. As an example, there was an article on the news this morning of Britain being blamed for higher Italian and Spanish bond rates, higher rates that occurred earlier yesterday, before the meeting of EU ministers. The simple fact is that the Empire can be reborn without any reference to Britain, it, and the euro, is entirely their own affair.
See also:
Nations are the unit of diversity
France, the third axis power how the French have always seen themselves as part of the Empire.
The EU and laying up treasure from overseas
The advantages of globalization
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