ALMOST 1940 AGAIN - Kevin Hannon

“History is the science of what never happens twice.” --Paul Valery

There are lies, damn lies and Euro-sceptic versions of reality. Euro-sceptics now control the government of Britain and are imposing their version of reality in UK foreign policy. That was made evident at the EU conference of 9th December 2011 in Brussels. There Prime Minister Cameron presented to other EU heads of government a set of last-minute proposals he knew were unacceptable. When they were turned down he hurled his veto in the way of a full EU treaty for coping with Euro-zone problems and rushed back to England. There he has been praised and applauded by his deeply Euro-sceptic MPs and Tory party.

The future of the UK economy depends upon the health of the Euro-zone. The immediate future of the world economy depends upon the health of the Euro-zone, as the US and Chinese governments have emphasised along with EU governments. No matter. Of what importance are the UK, European, and world economy when weighed in the balance against keeping a rabidly Euro-sceptic Tory party happy and keeping Mr Cameron as Prime Minister? We have had our answer to that weighty question.

Yet another glorious episode in British history began on December 9th, we are told. Most of the mendacious, misleading, malicious, malevolent propaganda outlets in the UK, called newspapers for short, have filled their pages with stories and pictures of Mr Cameron’s bulldog Churchillian stand against future EU diktats. He has stood firm against EU efforts to tax and regulate those brilliant, ingenious City institutions and banks so essential to Britain’s future, and without which we would not be in the economic situation we are today.

Let champagne corks pop and bottles of bubbly Bollinger be drunk to celebrate Cameronian bravery in the face of EU bullying! Hurrah! A Cabinet stuffed with Old Etonians and other former public school boys have defended their chums in the City of London from EU rules so that they can carry on making loads of money and loads of bonuses without Eurocratic interference. What a triumph for the future happiness of the working people of Britain! There can be no doubt that it was well worth destroying our good relations with the whole EU for a victory like that. I look forward to the film about Mr Cameron’s exploits against pesky EU foreigners. It will be called “Carry on Bankers” I expect. I can imagine it now. Hattie Jacques as Chancellor Merkel, Kenneth Williams as President Sarkozy, lecherous Sid James as former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, and a suave Dirk Bogarde as Prime Minister Cameron outwitting them all for British national interests. I grow nostalgic at the thought of all the belly-laughs to be had.

Nostalgia - it’s Britain’s main industry. At a stroke Mr Cameron has brought about a huge surge of output in our main industry, and improved the efficiency of journalists. They can now write lots of stories very quickly, composed entirely of clichés and prejudices and without having to slow up for either thought or facts, the two main delayers of press output. An unforeseen(sic) bonus from Mr Cameron’s diplomacy.

And what diplomacy!! He has brought us back to the heady, glorious days of summer 1940. Britain again stands alone against diktats coming out of Europe. In 1940 Britain stood alone against a rampant fascist empire, except for the help from a world-wide empire and the US armaments industry. But now we are even more alone and so our situation is even more heroic and victory will therefore be even more glorious. Britain is without an empire, and the US government (along with the Chinese government) is on the side of EU efforts to impose financial stability and long-term economic prosperity on the whole of Europe. It is
clearly the duty of a UK government to avoid such an evil project, come what may. Mr Cameron’s diplomacy is quicker and more direct than the clumsy provisions Britain had at the start of WWII. Then Britain had many allies in Europe, all of whom had to be invaded, conquered and have their independence taken from them before Britain was driven from mainland Europe. The isolation of Britain in 1940 was forced upon it by a series of crushing military defeats inflicted on its European allies and on British forces. By a judicious use of his own diplomacy Mr Cameron has dispensed with the need for such a series of piecemeal defeats and gone directly to complete isolation without any European allies. Foreign Secretary Mr Hague must certainly have contributed his expertise.

Such incisive diplomacy! At last we have the confrontation between Britain and the rest of the EU that Mr Cameron and his Euro-sceptic supporters have long desired. Having learned from history Mr Cameron has not made the mistakes of Prime Minister Winston Churchill (a founder of the European Movement). He believed in having many allies and in being deeply committed to mainland Europe as decisive for Britain’s future. No such follies for our present day Euro-sceptics, who have gone straight to isolation in one swift move.

Never in the history of British political conflicts with European powers have so many owed so much understanding to so few newspaper owners. And so, inspired and buoyed up by newspaper versions of British history, armed with an arsenal of clichés, and with a fully mobilised nostalgia industry, the people of Britain will fight on, if need be alone, if need be for years, against proposals coming out of the EU.

Fortune smiles on Britons, so that in these times of isolation and economic crisis we have a Euro-sceptic government and so many Tory MPs with the quality of political understanding for which Bourbon monarchs of France became remembered after their Restoration. The famous diplomat Talleyrand observed of them that “They forgot nothing and they learned nothing.” That sort of Bourbon quality of mind has made a Thatcherite Restoration in UK foreign policy possible, and got the UK into the potentially glorious position it is in today.

From the position in which Euro-sceptic diplomacy has put Britain all we have to do is wait until the EU attacks either Russia or the USA, or both. Then we shall be able to get out of this hole we are in, destroy the evil EU empire, and march triumphantly to Berlin via Paris. The UK’s Hundred Years War against the EU has a long, long way to go yet. Famous war films will be made about it; all of them called “Carry On Nostalgia”.

Kevin Hannon, Chairman West Midlands European Movement. (13.12.2011)

(Historical footnote: At the end of the Hundred Years War all the English armies were
driven out of France except for a small enclave at Calais -- where these days Eurostar
enclave trains enter and exit the Channel Tunnel.)