As small becomes increasingly beautiful, the EU wants to be massive

James Holland
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read
Turning a blind eye to the EU’s serious shortcomings won’t help anyone, whatever you may think about Brexit.

Being small, flexible, independent and democratic is the future. One can see it everywhere. Since the start of the twentieth century, 108 independence referendums have been held, leading to the independence of 29 countries.

It was once acceptable to send your army into one of your cities or regions and quell a rebellion with force of arms. Joyously, in many parts of the world today, that is no longer the case.

Can you imagine the Spanish army marching on Catalunya because its people had decided they want to elect their own leaders and decide for themselves what to do with their taxes and their trade partners?

Countries have gained independence from colonial conquerors. Regions are gaining increasing independence from their powerful centralised capitals. Cities are increasingly independent from the nations they belong to. Best-practises in governance are being copied and tested all over the planet. Direct democracy, decentralisation and people-power and the buzzwords of tomorrow’s politics.

Meanwhile, the EU is doing the exact opposite.

Its leaders and cheerleaders are seeking a large continental empire — a new kind of super-nationalism. One that will kill all the petty dangerous nationalisms and regionalisms of Europe. So, that we, all us ‘Europeans’, can join together, and then, when we finally have our army, we can take on China’s manufacturers, and Russia’s tanks, and Brazil’s farmers and the whole world will see our example and…and…and…

It is obvious but rarely discussed that EU super-nationalism is very popular among those closest to its levers of power and the profits it generates. EU nationalism is the future, we are told. We are also told that if we don’t sign up to it (whatever ‘it’ may choose to become in the future) we are doomed.

Support for the EU is increasingly based on threats and fear: “join us or you will die in the global market”; “don’t leave or your economy will die and you will die with it”; or my favourite “without the EU, we will all turn into Nazis, again”. A utopian dream that has reverted to fear to garner your support has lost its way.

The EU has some serious major ‘issues’. Some real biggies. Why the Guardian and other normally sensible publications are unable to look at the EU more critically is beyond me. Brexit appears to have clouded their judgement.

Many hate the UK establishment for what it stands for or, what it has stood for in the past — and I happily add my voice to a lot of that criticism. But that shouldn’t lead to the deduction that one must therefore blindly love the EU.

Hating the UK and therefore wishing to see its power swallowed up by the EU may seem desirable to some, but only, surely, if the EU was more democratic than the UK; if its politicians were known and more accountable than the UK’s; if its institutions were closer to its people than the British government’s are; if the way it worked was understood by its voters better than Brits understand Westminster. But, it is none of those things, and so I am at a loss as to why so many love it so very, very much.

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James Holland

Written by

Freelance Writer. European Politics, #Brexit, #EP2019. @CapX, @Reaction and @BrexitCentral. Former @DanielJHannan advisor.

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