Published on 12, July, 2020
Give Northern Ireland back to the Irish. It's only ever been trouble.
Discuss...
I'm convinced that the EU will not last more than a few more decades. All empires eventually collapse.
One question I ask Europhiles is that if the purpose of the EU is primary economic (remember the European Economic Community) and now that the EU has almost every European country as a member then should it expand and take in non-European countries as members? If not, then why, other than name, should it restrict its membership to countries on the basis of nothing more than a quirk in geography?
There are many non-European countries that are developed democracies with a high standard of living and it would have made more sense from an economic perspective to admit them as members of the EU rather than the basket cases of eastern Europe like Romania and Bulgaria. The fact that EU expansionism beyond Europe is such an obscure and unthought of concept even amongst hardened Europhiles was a strong factor behind why I voted Leave.
How exactly is the EU an empire? And how are things like the Trans-Pacific Partnership supposed to be better and to benefit the UK? Worker protection and human rights will go completely out of the window. How about that for an empire?
Neither am I sure which evolved countries you had in mind as being part of the EU rather than these basketball nations closer to home. Possibly an affiliated status should have been maintained for longer but no....don't see the logic there. Oh, wait: they could return to another empire of yesteryear again...
nexus9 said:How exactly is the EU an empire?
It might help to look at the Roman Empire and its successor the Holy Roman Empire to get an idea of this.
Remember how Ted Heath stated in 1973 that it's only a trading arrangement but over the years the EU has moved closer and closer to becoming a superstate.