And has been for 65 years and has absolutely no influence upon current German government policy at all!
Last week, the week when David Cameron made himself, and by extension the whole of the UK, look completely arrogant and out of touch (with everyone except his fellow isolationists within the UK), I saw a couple of interesting pieces which were sadly typical.
Firstly there was an item on one forum where Germany and Iran were mentioned in some context or other. One British commenter (as against commentator) remarked that this was to be expected as Hitler and Ahmedinajad belonged together. Fine, except for the fact they were never alive at the same time, current Germany is a democracy not a Fascist dictatorship, few people want Hitler back and his influence here is nil. Ahmedinajad would, if he wanted to, have considerable difficulty talking to him (and I do not think that Shia Muslims are into spiritualism).
Typical of this though is the fact that even now many people in the UK cannot get Hitler out of their system, and falsely associate all things German with him. The fact that the Germans look upon him now as a thoroughly evil b*stard of the lowest type would never get into their thick skulls.
As for how many people in the UK could name the current German Chancellor and what she actually believes .... Not all that many is my opinion if this ridiculous fixation is anything to go by.
Consequently when I hear that 57% of people in the UK think that Cameron did the right thing, I take it with a pinch of salt.
How many of them actually understood the issues involved, how many understood the consequences of his actions, how many of them believe that the UK does not need any friends or allies? When many people still put Hitler and Germany automatically together even now, I would question the intelligence, logical basis and soundness of their thinking upon significant issues such as this. So this 57% is meaningless.
Which is not to say that the agreement last week was necessarily a "good thing" - though I would agree that keeping the Euro afloat was absolutely necessary. Cameron may have believed that it was bad for the City of London and therefore bad for the UK, I have seen enough contrary arguments this week which suggest that people across Europe are being sacrificed for the needs of the banking system and the fat cats who received all the handouts the last time. As the City of London is the ultimate home (in Europe at least) of the banking fat cats, you would wonder by this argument why Cameron vetoed it - and why the rest spinelessly did not!
Eventually there is also the argument - if an agreement had been reached which would have decimated industry across the North of England and thrown 1000s out of work as a result, that would have been "bad for the UK", or is it only a question of the City of London? Anyway it didn't need a decision by the EU to bring about the action described above (closing down industry in the North of England, throwing 1000s out of work etc) - THE TORIES DID THIS AS A MATTER OF GOVERNMENT POLICY IN THE 1980s!!!!
So what is, in other words, good for the UK, is more a question of arbitrary political definition than anything that can be objectively defined!
There have, despite the 57% support from the sheep (actually that is insulting to real sheep thinking about it), been some voices of sense (though not from the feeble government coalition partners, the Lib Dems, who as a pro-EU party should have forced a vote of confidence and possibly brought the government down), particularly from Alex Salmond and the SNP.
Of course the Scots can (and will if they have any sense) vote for independence in a referendum. The City of London is a long way from Scotland, and the Scots will take some persuading that it is the most important part of the UK.
Meanwhile Hitler's remains must be turning in their bunker. I can imagine of course that his ghost will be pleased to see that so many people in the UK remember him with seeming affection. And some of his committed deeply nationalistic thinking is well entrenched in growing political forces like the BNP and UKIP (and even at times rears its ugly head in the British Conservative Party).
Meanwhile though for everyone across Europe (including the UK), we had better prepare ourselves for several years of proverbial famine, where only the bankers seem to get more prosperous and fatter. Restoring economies, getting people back to work, creating prosperity for the masses, and combatting increasing poverty seem to ever more distant objectives.
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