Did those feet in ancient times walk across England's mountains green? I seriously doubt it, as the owner of the feet in question is a potentially fictional 30 year old male born in Palestine 2000 years ago, a time noted for being notoriously difficult to obtain cheap air fares or quality budget coach travel due to substandard Holy Land broadband. Mr Of Nazareth had no desire to spend hours on Expedia, for it was written, he had little tolerance for pop up adds and was easily distracted by CountenanceBook.
Despite containing enough historical inaccuracy to make Braveheart look like a Simon Schama 98 part documentary on the history of lambing in Wales, the stirring words of Jerusalem inspire nationalistic chest pumping and eye reddening, Union Jack humping fervour until you feel ready to munch down a Yorkshire pudding sandwich and invade France, brandishing a cutlass from the back of a milk float.
It makes me wonder if David Whatamaroon had accidentally flicked his iPod on shuffle this week and spent 2 hours listening to Margaret Thatcher's Hymntime Karaoke Songbook with Jerusalem on repeat, before landing in Brussels and making a bit of a spectacle out of himself in the best traditions of a man so consumed by self promotion and wax faced posturing that, like a 14 year old farting during school assembly, felt the need to turn all the attention on 'me, me, me' in the hope of appearing vaguely relevant, a notion which flies in the face of public and political perception.
The effect of DC comic exercising his veto at the Euro Summit has been seen by some as a mere gesture of independence from a Eurozone crisis that is outside our remit due to the UK's none participation in the single currency. This shields us from two key points that have short and longer term significance for us and Europe. The first is that by turning the meeting into a crisis of the European Union, the political debate surrounding how the Euro can be saved was pushed to the sidelines and turned into a row between 'us and them'. The Euro remains precarious, as Germany and France are now essentially guard dogs and CCTV bullies checking the homework of profligate nations who failed to balance their books. However, as stated in the Guardian's Editorial;
"that founding economic analysis is of only limited relevance to Greece – and no help at all in dealing with Spain and Ireland, both of whose slumps stem from housing and lending bubbles"
It appears that the cracks in the currency are being papered over by the big guns of Europe rather than providing a solution to the long term issues facing a single currency tripping balls, throwing a whitey and sitting on the floor of the cubical trying to regain it's equilibrium before the bouncers wade in and chuck it out. There is still no central bank for the Euro and no treaty in place to form one, leaving the big economies free to rule the roost, dish out sanctions to over-spenders, but doomed to scratch their heads should the fault lie elsewhere.
The second problem with viewing this as 'not our fight' is that it's easy to overlook the significance of our old chum Dave bringing the Euro sceptic dinosaurs a prezzie back from his holiday to stop them grumbling over having to share the Government canteen with the Lib Dems. The country suddenly becomes even more insular, isolated and bitter, essentially locking ourselves in our bedroom and listening to Marilyn Manson records dreaming of a time when we can trade with ourselves and ignore those Europeans who 'just don't understand'.
It all makes me wonder how long the Liberal Democrats will sit quietly like castrated puppies or if they've actually morphed into some sort of post-modern art installation, commenting on modern life by expressing everything and nothing simultaneously in a bewildering volley of comment without content. In fact, the coalition appears to be experimenting in a breed of anti-politics where the opposing concepts of power and dissent are gradually removed from the political process, leaving a silent and turgid hegemony which lacks the brazen wrongness of totalitarianism in favour of an impotent perma-government.
None of this is particularly relevant at street level, where the dark satanic mills of civil unrest, riot hangovers, pension cuts and an inequalities gap the size of Bournemouth are of more immediate concern. But it makes me wonder how long we're going to be stuck with a non-government, more concerned with sellotaping itself together than actually identifying a strategy to haul us out of this economic bum pit.
At least we can count on big Dave to fight for Britain at home, as well as on the European stage. Unless of course, the whole meeting turned out to be a bit of a 'damp squib'. Oh well...
Imissyourface xx
No comments:
Post a Comment