History offers up another of its ironies. The Soviet Union collapsed when great masses of people simply walked away from it. You may recall the blissful faces of those crowds who strolled peacefully into West Berlin, and then proceeded to tear down the wall which had imprisoned them for two generations. Now the European Union is about to collapse because great masses of people are walking into it: very little ecstasy this time, just lawless desperation. But by sheer numbers, their progression is as inexorable and politically destabilising as that miraculous exodus which brought down the great Communist empire without a shot being fired.
Forget the pantomime “negotiations” this weekend over an emergency brake – which can’t be used without prior universal agreement (rather like a fire alarm that can’t be activated without an international committee being convened), or the tortuous new wording of empty promises. That isn’t even a sideshow. It is deliberately deceptive nonsense. » | Janet Daley | Saturday, January 30, 2016
