There is a way to end the drift of political events, the squabbling over trivia and the loss of purpose and drive: and that is to take on the great unresolved question of Britain’s relationship with the EU. There is now an opportunity, and here is a plan.
The stock of the EU has never been lower. According to Eurobarometer, only
16 per cent of the UK population has a positive opinion of the EU. Centralised and inefficient, it cannot cope with the demands of world competition, or even manage its own budget properly. The euro was launched in defiance of warnings that the EU was an impossible place for a single currency – too diverse, too rigid, and with no central budget to bail out the losers.
The euro was never just a currency. It was the means to secure an irreversible political union. When the economic flaws were brutally exposed, the response was, as always, to centralise still further. In return for German money, the weaker economies had to submit to a savage squeeze, higher unemployment and a permanent control over their economies.
