Dawn

Dawn

Monday, March 22, 2010

Well, the EU project is not working out quite the way it was planned to. Which was that each crisis would allow the Brussels bureaucrats to take another step towards a problem-solving superstate. In fact, our Ambrose is now wondering whether this week won’t effectively see the end of the project. Which, I have to admit, is a lot sooner than I thought its lack of democratic validity and the weight of its internal inconsistencies would bring it to this point. Interestingly, Ambrose doesn’t point the finger at any of the national governments - “I blame the EU elites that charged ahead with this project for the wrong reasons – some cynically, mostly out of Hegelian absolutism – ignoring the economic anthropology of Europe and the rules of basic common sense.” Quite. But chickens have a habit of coming home to roost.

As for Germany . . Well here’s a nice article from El País which makes the point that – after 50 years of guilt-ridden subordination of her interests to those of others (especially France) - Germany has finally, in effect, come of age and decided to follow her own national course. This must be a terrifying prospect, not only for Spain (though a devaluation could come in handy) but also (especially?) for France’s President Sarkozy, who’s just suffered a devastating defeat in the regional elections So, not a good week for him, then. Good job he’s got a faithful wife to console him. Possibly.

On a more micro scale – the loss of the massive income from property transfer taxes has reportedly brought many Spanish municipalities to the edge financial collapse. It’s said they can’t technically go bankrupt so one wonders what happens when they actually fall into the abyss. Meanwhile, some are sacking staff, reducing services and planning tax increases additional to those introduced by Madrid. Happy times.

Finally . . . My visitor today had difficulty understanding a sign in a shop window. This was partly because his Spanish is not what it used to be 40 years ago but mainly because it was upside down.

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