The BBC is living in hope..it’s all a bad, bad dream soon to be over with ‘Frau Europe’ back in the driving seat….
Many Europeans eye the months ahead with foreboding. They see anti-establishment parties on the ascendancy. Angela Merkel – for so long Frau Europe – may lose power. And the financial markets are skittish over the possibility of a Marine Le Pen victory in France. Every edge up in her poll ratings sends bond yields rising.
And yet an entirely different scenario may play out. It is quite possible that before the end of the year observers will declare that the Brexit-Trump tide has turned and that European integration has found new champions.
The BBC starts off telling us that the ‘anti-Establishment’ movement is one we should view with foreboding, then admits that Trump was right when he said the EU was a vehicle for the Germans, and then cheerleads quietly for a more united Europe.
An interesting article from the fair, free and impartial BBC.
One might almost think Mr Hewitt looks forward to a Shulz/Macron axis which would certainly seem likely to go out of its way to try to damage the UK’s political and economic interests. However, our Gavin overlooks one essential factor: the Euro in its present form is wrecking the economies of of the southern members of the eurozone (& France too), and if they are to fix that, massive treaty changes are required which they may find impossible to force through.
Secondly, Macron is a socialist sheep in sheep’s clothing, and just maybe the French electorate have seen enough of their failed policies not to invite Macron to have another go…
The German BBCs have been bigging up Schulz in ways I find laughable. “Mega Schulz” as he is styled, a nonentity who has risen to obscurity, is supposedly setting German voters on fire with his charisma. At least this suggests Merkel is finished, but Schulz is a creature of the EU and is still puzzled why “European solidarity” didn’t kick in to save the Germans from their Willkommenskultur. This supposed move towards a socialist, even more pro-EU Franco-German axis is very bad for Brexit, but it seems to confound the clear increase in popularity of FN and the less important AfD. Although the latest ZDF Politbarometer poll has SPD gaining 6% on 30%, CDU down 1% to 34%, the AfD down 1% to 10%.
It really would be a triumph if Wilders or Le Pen won, but it seems inevitable that the zombie parties will squeeze them out. Germany is the EU and vice versa. More Big Beard Butchery won’t fuel anti-EU sentiment, but Germans really hate seeing their cash being poured down the drain on bailouts.
ID,
I agree it is unlikely that Wilders or Le Pen will take power this year. The BBC et al will portray this as a victory for liberal leftism and continue to promote a Progressive Alliance in the U.K. But it is very likely that the two challengers will do well enough to demonstrate that EU scepticism is a growing force and so Brussels will be very concerned about the next set of European Parliament elections and therefore anxious to demonstrate that leaving the EU is a bad thing. Therefore we need to hold our nerve on Brexit.
The liberal left establishment world wide knows that it fighting for its life against the awakening voice and will of the people. They will fight dirty and they have the MSM in their pocket, plus the legal and educational systems. They may be able to use this power to paper over the cracks for a while longer but I feel certain that within the next decade the Euro and mass migration will finally force people to vote for leaders who will sort these two key issues out. Wilders and Le Pen, or people with similar policies, will win in the end. But the longer this is delayed the harder the correcting medicine will be.
I wouldn’t say not this year-there is enough disgruntlement in France and Holland, as I know from experience to possibly bring about either one of these parties to succeed which would certainly help Brexit along its way. I do agree the fight maybe dirty but when Brits have their backs up against the wall we fight harder than they against us (WW2) have we the guts nowadays? Looks doubtful sometimes as far as the BBC shows so poignantly-wet liberals everywhere!
Doublethinker
Yes, it is unlikely that Wilders’ party will get a majority, but if they become largest party and get squeezed out because no other party wants a coalition with them, many who do not support Wilders will see how ridiculous the situation is. Of course, there is a slim chance that a minor party liked the thought of being in government and made a deal that “tamed the excesses of Wilders” or some such nonsense. Trump is essentially Wilders, the Muslim banner and Orban, the wall builder, with more power and if he were successful would put further pressure on the. EU. Poland is also on the EU naughty step for undermining media and press freedom. The EU is not making friends. Long may they continue to undermine themselves.
“And yet an entirely different scenario may play out. It is quite possible that before the end of the year observers will declare that the Brexit-Trump tide has turned and that European integration has found new champions” – typical, hate filled, bigoted snobbery, from the cultists!
Let’s remove the hate and deviancy, to state the reality/truth behind the Islamic Al Beebs propaganda….
“And yet an entirely different scenario may play out. It is quite possible that before the end of the year observers will declare that the declaration of war against their own people by the satanic elite, and this constant attack on the people they hate so much, yet are supposed to represent, actually pays off, and the German created forth Reich’s purpose of creating a communist, totalitarian shithole continues at full speed, destroying the nationstate, it’s citizens liberties and freedom’s, to create the elites Islamic inspired hell on earth, that will eliminate the threat of the people challenging this elitist dystopia for generations to come”
The truth. Something that’s been banned by the Sheikhs of Al Beebistan for decades
Many Europeans !? Should that not read Many EU ropeans ?
Or even ‘many EU-RoP-eans’, given the present rate of enrichment.
He says this: “But observers no longer trust the polls, and they fear the unforeseen event that could turn even more voters against governing elites.”
I wonder what sort of “unforeseen event” could possibly make people in France and Holland decide to vote for Le Penn or Wilders? He doesn’t seem to want to go into detail on that point so let us help him. Maybe yet another “mainly Muslim” inspired slaughter of innocent Europeans might just tip the balance.
For once I believe the BBC man may well be right.
I believe the Trump effect will encourage voters back to safety, as they see it. The Titanic was quite safe until it hit the rock and most passengers on the EU Titanic are inside in the warm believing those in command on the bridge must know what they are doing.
Seemingly Mr Juncker has drawn up a blueprint for a future Europe but the French, Dutch and Germans are resisting its unveiling – for some reason. Just as the lid will be kept on the Greek crisis until later in the year.
Meanwhile I’m sure the ETIN (European Tax Identification Number) for every citizen is coming along nicely. Doubtlessly a tidying up measure that will lead to the ability to tax individuals – the wealthy, of course, of all nations, which soon becomes everybody.
They won`t unveil the plans for thier EU-Religion-Of-PEace-AN future until such time as our Westminster politicians confirm payment of the £60 billion demand we were given for the unamed `future` project we apparently had already been signed up for before we voted to leave…..
It`s ironic that whilst they cannot sign off thier annual accounts for any of the last 15 years, they can however hand over a bill for the costs of a vague and imagined EU project which might take place a decade or so in the future, even though the chances are that the EU will no longer exist and the UKs` membership of that bankrupt failed EU project would have ended many years prior to its bankruptcy both financially and morally…
Verhofstadt himself has said that Brexiteers are like rats fleeing a sinking ship. This means that the EU ship is sinking and is really just a leaky rustbucket that will sink anyway, whether or not there is a Titanic moment. This is what EU apologists mean by “the EU is not perfect”. The British crew are already in the lifeboats. The Greek, Italian and Spanish crew, trapped in the bilges, are watching the waters rise. The crazed German Admiral keeps stopping to pick up Barbary pirates and cutthroats in distress causing overcrowding, mayhem and discontent in the German, French and Eastern European quarters. Even Cap’n Schulz has left the bridge to lift the spirits of the German tars. The German Admiral may even be forced to walk the plank! The Swedish cabin boys are regetting letting the Barbary pirates share their hammocks.
Remember nothing is going on in Sweden! Here is a report that does not exist, http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/polis-skot-varningsskott-mot-stenkastare/ Notice the mention of immigrants in an immigrant area. No wonder the bBC claim there is no problem in Sweden, the level of cover up is astounding.
Fred – Those are non cars being non torched, while the non mob attack non police as non stores are non looted.
(The only true bit of that sentence is the non-police, who stand around watching, like our own bill.)
So apart from being a political colossus, it would seem Trump is also a Prophet who foresaw these events by several days.
Hail Trump!
I am not prepared to call him a prophet, much more like it is happening so often, not difficult to be correct. Bit like saying ‘I predict a knife crime in london’.
peter,
That is a non-LOL. But I think I saw some reports that the Swedish police used live rounds. If so, that is remarkable.
I think there was a Norwegian report of the same incident, where 3 -5 rounds were NOT fired by the police.
Fred,
Ah ! At last the Swedes have brought in the Army. Do they have one ?
Grant:
Of course Sweden has an army. In order not to frighten people, they’re a bit like this, but not so butch:
Iain,
Hate to say it , but I am old enough to remember when that was first broadcast !!! God help us if the British Army ever go that way. The Navy is a different matter, of course.
Yes. I’m afraid that in 10 years or so, this might become a training video.
Iain,
That is not funny.
Just an example of
black humourhumour of colour.Ah, the things that would never get made now! Hence, no funny comedy. I don’t even think David Walliams’ Fly Low would get made now.
There are no knife crimes in London since we’ve had a Mohammedan mayor. All reports to the contrary are fake news. Islam has established multicultural peace.
Apart from the knife crimes relating to FGM of course…….
I can imagine the BBC deciding to `spin` the headline about Swedes being at boiling point to something along the lines of the word `Swedes` being changed to `turnip` and the `boiling` being the water in the pan which would have been avoided had the Chef not been such a racist….
The longer the political correction is delayed the more extreme it will be. This is always the case. The elites cannot see that there is a need for a change. They never do see it . When at last it dawns on them they will try reform of the obvious faults. That never works either and leads in a short time to dramatic and sudden change.
This is part of the human condition. It is unlikely that the current EU crisis will play out any other way.
Dave S,
Spot on . And the Ides of March are coming !
One aspect of the cultural and ethnic enrichment of Europe which the media might like to consider is the loss of valuable tourist revenue because of fears of riots and terror.
From ‘France Soir’ (on-line) I gathered the following:
– France had 1.5 m fewer tourists in 2016 (source CRT = Regional Tourism Council);
remember that the Bataclan & Stade de France attacks were in Nov 2015.
– Tourists from China down 21.5%, from Japan down 41.2%, from USA down 4.9%;
– EUR 1.3 billion of lost trade in Ile-de-France region alone (CRT);
– Signs of things picking up in Nov & Dec 2016 but the latest violence may put a halt to that revival.
Possibly OT, as I can speak only of a local radio station served by ‘Sky News’, but me and SWMBO were left a little gob smacked that a British broadcaster was assisting a French political candidate in his efforts to pitch France as the better option for British executive talent.
Is the media classes loathing of Brexit so intense they would destroy their own country to serve up to others?
Ah, not so OT….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39042884
Like certain teachers, these chaps do know who to head for to get the message out, don’t they?
Guest – you and your missus knows it!
The MSM along with the rest of the elite all live in their own little “bubble world where international boundaries count for for very little. The majority of them have been born and bought up in this “professional class” and those who have come up from the bottom with the lure of a large income, generally appear pretty dam quick to exchange any real working class concerns for the faux, establishment approved, virtue signalling ones in order to climb up the greasy pole.
For them, they will never live in a society which has been taken over with immigrants with swamped hospitals, schools and social services. No I am afraid the closest they will ever get to this sort of diverse society is an expensive townhouse in Hampstead Heath and dinner parties with the charming Doctor Hassan – the well read and award winning geneticist, whos forehand is renowned at the tennis club and whos polite and privately educated kids always say good morning to you in the street.
And that evil Trump and that vulgar Farage person want to stop people like the good Doctor and his charming family moving around to England and America. “Why of course Francesca I will sympathetically cover the anti Trump demo, Love to Peers and tell
Toby I hope he does well in the Lacrosse tournament”
I am afraid a combination of misplaced political naivity by those who take the “humanist viewpoint on everything and outright media manipulation and cynical lying by those who are quick to roll themselves up in their national flag but have little real desire to identify with its true meaning mean that we have some long battles ahead.
To me Emma Thompson said it all about the attitude of these elites to our land when she referred to England as “A cake filled misery – laden grey old Island.
I suppose if you regularly go to Klosters or Necker Island it would seem true . But to me it is still home!
And so it continues ………………………
Oaknash I think your analysis is spot on. If you are part of the 1% international super rich (or aspiring to that class) your experience of multiculturalism is radically different to someone working on minimum wage in Tower Hamlets, Rotherham or Boston, Lincs. What disgusts me is the way they can’t, or won’t, understand this.
As for Emma Thompson, and all such comments, just turn it around. Imagine if she’d said something similar about ANY other country. It is unthinkable.
She is exactly what George Orwell was referring to in the following passage, which it is worth reproducing in full (under Fair Use):
“In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.
“In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British.”
Cranmer – It would seem some things never change and history just keeps on repeating itself. Except this time we have a new “Master Race” who are also quite keen on war booty especially slaves that their “right hands possess”.
Cranmer/Oak,
Orwell had it right and that was not yesterday !
A real feminist…
http://news.sky.com/story/marine-le-pen-refuses-to-wear-headscarf-for-meeting-with-grand-mufti-10776202