Europe still wants the rest of the world to go away

A few years ago I commissioned the artist Krieg Barrie (also responsible for the shields in BritainAndAmerica's masthead) to produce the drawing above.  Click on the image to enlarge it.  The drawing depicts four bureaucrats sat around a table.  The cloth underneath their wine and cheese is the EU flag.  Unnoticed at the base of the table a hungry African begs for attention.  Also unnoticed, from the East, stalks a terrorist.

The EU remains inward looking.  The new EU Treaty, discussed here 48 hours ago, will not produce a more outward-looking Europe.

As Con Coughlin wrote in yesterday's Telegraph, the EU is probably more introspective than ever before:

• The new PM in Warsaw, Donald Tusk, may reverse the Law and Justice Party's support for the US missile defence shield to be located on Polish soil.  This will leave the whole of Europe more vulnerable from missile attack but the short-term desire to pacify President Putin and secure Russian energy supplies has over-ridden that strategic defence need.
• It is the US that is leading on sanctions again Iran.  Europe is dragging its feet.
• Only Britain and the Netherlands are committing adequately to Afghanistan.  Other NATO European nations are keeping their troops away from the frontline battles with the Taliban.  This despite the fact that most terror plots aimed at Europe originate from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• A reluctance to encourage Turkey in its ambitions to join the EU means Europe has less and less influence on this pivotal Muslim-majority nation.

Many European nations are not banning extremist groups.  Europe continues to invest inadequate sums in its military capacity.  And, only yesterday, Britain's Conservative leader David Cameron signalled that Conservative security policy was becoming more European, less globalist.

The same insularity is seen in other areas of policy.  Europe lectures the world about global warming but can't meet its own modest Kyoto targets.  The EU aid budget is heavily politicised.  Its trade barriers hurt some of the poorest nations in the world.  Labour market rigidities and bloated welfare states are seeing Europe tumble down the world trade league.  Something has to change soon.

Comments

[Henry Mayhew]

Chuckle. Smirk.

[Malcolm Dunn]

'Yawn'. Even by your standards a brilliant riposte Atheling. I would imagine dear Henry Mayhew has been flattened by that one!

[atheling]

Malcolm:

Intelligence isn't everything.

There are other factors that contribute to a person's character, such as common decency, honesty, integrity, and a true sense of right and wrong.

Do you happen to be the same "malcolm" who is notorious for your ad hominems at this site and whom the siteowner asked to stop said attacks? If not, there are an astonishing number of malcolms who lack decency in your country.

Anti semitism is on the rise in Britain. Jews are assaulted, synagogues are desecrated, Jewish children are bullied, etc... and while it may not be as ugly as it was during Nazi Germany, it's still something to be ashamed of - for decent Britons, that is.

The massive immigration of Muslims into Britain has of course, been a contributing factor to the new anti Semitism there. However, people like Henry Mayhew demonstrate that there are indigenous Britons who also subscribe to good old fashioned Jew hating. And of course, people like you, malcolm, support that, don't you?

Based on the current climate in Britain today, we can safely assume that the end of the British Empire was a good thing: had this current rise of anti Semitism coincided with Britain's might of the past, we would probably witness a much more frightening situation.

Hannah Arendt was correct when she said that the face of evil is banal. Hence, my yawn at Mayhew.

[billm99uk]

Steevo:
Cameron? Well I'm somewhat sceptical of him at the moment. One minute he seems fairly sensible, the next... not. That said, with Blair's departure Labour seems to have been overrun with swivel-eyed PC loons, so we may have to risk the Boy David...

Atheling, anti-semitism in Britain (at least in modern times) has mostly been restricted to eccentric aristocrats and our few out-and-out neo-Nazis, both fairly peripheral groups, although I don't imagine that's any consolation if you are a victim. Most of the British population aren't really religious, so they couldn't care less if you're Jewish. Of course importing thousands of Muslim Pakistanis has rather changed the situation....

[atheling]

billm99uk:

Agreed. Those "eccentrics" also collaborated with the Nazis, didn't they?

[Henry Mayhew]

Miserable inadequacy should be nothing to boast about, Linger, stupid or not. And don't tell us what a great character you've got. That judgment is usually best left to others.

I shall be interested to see how long you have the guts to continue with "Atheling" as your cover. I imagine the embarrassment and fear of mockery must be getting uncomfortable. So what's the next name going to be? You've been an Old English prince for a bit (yes, I had to use dictionary.com). How about a character from English literature? Caliban, is my recommendation.

Of course, the substantive parts of your latter posts are beneath contempt and comment. It is more fun to discuss you. If you knew how to write a worthwhile post you might be treated with some respect. It is never too late to repent.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Yes I'm the same Malcolm Atheling. Although I find many of your posts rather humorous your lack of knowledge of my country can be extremely irritating. I know I should laugh but sometimes I can't.
Even with that lack of knowledge though to accuse Henry Mayhew of being a Jew Hater is a little strong though isn't it? More accurately it's a complete lie isn't it?
I think my original summation of you (disgrace to your country, family etc) which my displease Tim is nevetheless accurate.

[atheling]

malcolm:

"Disgrace"? You want to hear about disgrace?

I have a neighbor who is an elderly Jewish Englishwoman who grew up in 1930's and 1940's England. Born and educated in London, she told me stories of how the British people stood up to Nazi Germany, how as a Jew, she felt proud and secure to be an Englishwoman at that time. She went to school where she was not bullied, nor was she singled out for being a Jew. Indeed, she felt as English as Churchill did at that time.

Now, in light of the rhetoric coming out of Britain, and the growing hostility to British Jews, she sadly says, "This is not the English way..."

Your nation once stood up to bullies, and was known for its courage, honor and decency. These were your parents and grandparents, who heroically fought for freedom in the Western world.

You, and your ilk, malcolm, are not worthy to stand in their shadow.

Instead, you resort to silly ad hominems and your comments have been derided and scorned by other folks here, who recognize cowardice and foolishness when they see it.

Your absurd "summation", for which you have no basis, is only that: the weak name calling and attacks which hide your own inadequacies and resentments.

How ugly. How simply ugly.

[billm99uk]

Atheling - sure, plenty of collaborators, eugenicists and the like. It's interesting though that historically Anti-Semitism has been a preserve of the far right in the UK - only post the Intifada and the fall of the Berlin Wall has it become an obsession of the left (and yes, some of then are REALLY obsessive about it now).

Steevo - well it may make tactical sense now for Brown to scale down the UK Iraq presence and concentrate on far less politically-toxic Afghanistan. At least, I hope that's what he's doing. For what it's worth, I don't think Brown is Anti-American in nature, it's just that he's a political animal and he has to pander to his own base, at least just a little ;)

[atheling]

billm99uk:

Regarding the British pacifists in the 1930's - can you illuminate whether they were mainly "far right", or were they considered "left"?

[Henry Mayhew]

Atheling, I am going to have to let your words speak for themselves for as long as the editor lets you post on this site.

[atheling]

Thanks for the laugh, Mayhew.

[Henry Mayhew]

Sigh.

[Tim Montgomerie]

I'm closing this thread now.

:(