WELL DONE GEORGE

GEORGE PAPANDREOU, the prime minister of Greece, has caused outrage among the European political elite for having the temerity to give his people a say in their future by giving them a chance to vote on the €130 billion Greek bailout package agreed to last week among the leaders of the euro17.

            European Union politicians are not democrats, they fear the ballot box; to them it holds all of the uncertainty and horror of Pandora’s, and they will fight tooth and nail to avoid it if it is not required, other than to elect a government: and a referendum is an indulgence too far. It is bad enough that every five years they have to face the wretched people in an election, without one of their kind deliberately giving his citizens one ‘free of charge’ so to speak.

            After weeks of toiling behind closed doors in constant fear of the financial markets; and eventually having to go cap in hand to the Chinese, the euro17 finally congratulated themselves on a deal that pleases the markets (in the short term at least). The supportive  FTSE, Dow, Hang Seng, etcetera …at last, the EU leaders could see light at the end of tunnel. The markets were buying the deal and Angela Merkle and Nicolas  Sarkozy could get their first night of uninterrupted sleep in weeks.

            But then, out of the blue, George announces what must now seem like an ancient curse to the Eurocrats after their experience with the Lisbon Treaty – a referendum; an unwanted intrusion by the people into affairs that are better dealt with by the new bourbons of Brussels.

            Poor old George now has to appear in the headmaster’s study to explain himself, as the markets begin to teeter once more.

            The Greek prime minister was right to do what he has done, even if it was tarnished by domestic political considerations. It is right that the Greek people should have their say on an issue that will, one way or another, keep them and future generations impoverished. The question on the ballot paper will however be suitably edited and the vote will be for the bailout package.

            But at least the Greek people will have the final word, which is as it should be in any modern democracy: or so you would think. We British, on the other hand, who boast to the world that we are the mother of all parliaments; only a week ago witnessed a debate in this ‘mother of all parliaments’ that rejected giving the British people the same right of a say in their nation’s future as George Papandreou gave his people.

            Instead what we witnessed was a desperate act of  suppression by David Cameron to defeat the debates’ motion calling for a referendum on this country’s future within Europe. Like Angela Merkle and Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron suffers the same cold sweats as his colleagues at the mere mention of a referendum. So he imposed a three-line whip on his back benches even though the debate’s result was never binding. This is how much of a threat  our leaders’ consider, what they deem to be an anarchic device of a referendum, to be.

TO EUROPE’S POLITICIANS a referendum is like an architect having to defer to a bricklayer. They have this vision of a Federal Europe and are determined to destroy what they perceive of as any obstacle to this apparition.

            When, as part of this journey, the EU embarked upon the European single currency, they did so driven more by idealism than common sense. Even Sarkozy now says that Greece should never have been allowed to participate – which many at the time, in the UK  at least, were telling them; but, then, perfidious Albion …?

            But it was not only Greece that should have remained outside such a project. All of southern Europe; Portugal, Spain and Italy, should never have been welcomed into such an enterprise. Such mismatched economies could never form a single currency. Only idealism - that world of pure emotion, could have transacted such a failure as we are witnessing today.

            Rather than condemning the Greek prime minister for behaving like a democrat (for whatever reason) we in this country at least, should be emulating him. When will David Cameron give his people their own say on Europe?

            Even though the European continent is in danger of, not only its own economic ruin, but also playing its part in the ruin of the Western world’s banking system, the bacillus Europhile nevertheless still believes in the historical destiny of a United States of Europe, and will continue to pursue its objective come what may.