I do not normally watch the “topical debate” TV which is on
on a Sunday morning but this morning for some strange reason I did. Tony Blair was on the programme, the former
Labour Prime Minister of the UK. While
not a massive fan of the man due to his Iraq
policies and various other reasons he is probably the Labour Prime
Minister that I have had the most time for during my life time and when the
interview came round to the topic of the European Union I found myself agreeing
with everything he said.
As I have said before many in the UK unfortunately are
reluctant Europeans and we have suffered for it in the past and unless we
change our attitude toward The Union I fear we will suffer for it in the
future. There does seem to be in the UK very little stomach for the European
project with the general feeling “what’s in it for us”.
I would have thought that one very quick look at history
might at the very least give a hint as to what use the EU has been to the
people of Europe. Just cursory look
through the pages of wars in Europe (http://bit.ly/WBy0PE
) would show that post 1945, particularly Western Europe, has been relatively
conflict free. From its nascent
beginnings at the post war 1948 Hague Conference surely this co-operation between
the nations of Europe has contributed to this long period of relative peace.
Europe the continent has produced some amazing achievements,
but the blight of the continent has been conflict and war. Throughout the
various European countries towns like Pisa, Arras, Exeter, Swansea, Coventry,
Dresden and Berlin, among others, have
paid a terrible price not just in the precious lives of their inhabitants but
also in the destruction of culture, history and the ethereal soul of those
communities that many are still struggling to recover from.
While it is true that towns on the UK mainland such as Coventry,
Plymouth and London experienced extensive bombing and human misery but many
towns and cities of mainland Europe experienced the sheer trauma of occupation
and often the accompanying atrocities. If in any doubt just think what happened
in Oradour-sur-Glane and that was just one town in one war. The history of European war is unfortunately littered with such stories.
