Whatever the French think of President Emmanuel Macron, and we will know tomorrow when the senate election closes, he is not popular in quite a few EU countries’ and certainly not in the United (still) Kingdom.
Under his EU Presidency differences about how to handle the Ukraine crisis appear still to be unresolved. Much the same applies to the debate and planning on the future of Europe.
As President Vladimir Putin was announcing that Lithuania is not independent the EU was unable to show a truly united front. NATO has similar problems with some of it’s members which may have inspired the Russian navy to provocatively enter Danish waters this week.
The general public across the world are fed up with depressing news as a Reuters survey illustrated last week. The survey aptly supported the points I made in this column last Saturday including bias as a primary reason for people ceasing to follow news.
So without bias let me state that President Macron has come up with one extremely positive proposal to create an associated status for Ukraine and others to join including a decision making structure linked to the EU. Trade has not been mentioned, so far as I have seen, but presumably some form of trade structure would be included.
Macron has proposed that the United Kingdom could be among other countries able to join. The proposal appears to have minimal support but perhaps people are missing the key point. Such an arrangement would present a “United Europe” to the rest of the world especially Russia.
It should and probably would create a stronger unity within NATO if not purely but especially by bonding the UK into the EU political sphere.
There is one very important set of circumstances that every concerned person should take careful note of. It is the current appalling state of the United Kingdom which most people since the outbreak of the Ukraine war have recognised is a top player in NATO.
Before progressing with this let me state that I have been proven right in my condemnation of the media at least in terms of public opinion. What follows is opinion.
The Westminster Government is incredibly unpopular and if truth be known most UK citizens are fed-up with politicians generally. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon no doubt had the unpopularity of the current government in mind in calling for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Neither Scottish separatists or the extremely vocal ‘remain’ lobby who want the UK to rejoin the EU appear to understand or have any depth of knowledge of what that would involve. One small example is talk of ending the right of veto on EU legislation that would leave individual countries, especially small ones, with issues out on a limb.
That the British Monarchy has begun a tortuous slide that could well lead to its end is hard to argue with. Imagine England and Wales no longer connected to Scotland – or it’s principal defence bases that are located north of the border – and sitting adjacent to an all Ireland united Irish republic (currently neutral). Can’t see that? then think again!
In such a scenario London and Westminster would most certainly lose all common sense direction. In the economic circumstances driven by the UK’s collapse, on top of the current global problems defence would almost certainly lose all support of the citizenry. I can hear it now: “Pay taxes to defend who?”. I am already hearing people with social status declaring “Britain doesn’t need a navy”.
If reminded that the air force and army are in Europe bolstering defence under the auspices of NATO people hum and ha because there is concern about cost to the taxpayer but also a deep sympathy for Ukraine, not to mention concern about Russia. In the circumstances I describe above that would certainly change.
Now I can’t foresee the future but my message is quite clear. To all politicians and officials I would say what was once said to me before exams at school: “Knuckle down and forget your silly ideas and concentrate or you will fail”.
———— Dateline: 18/06/2022 The Corner Cafe, Deal. ———-
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