Given the events of the past two years one wonders how many more times we must endure idiotic Remainers telling us that the other members of the EU are our friends and partners, something which was never correct, but which has now been shown to be palpably untrue. If these apologists for Brussels knew anything about history they would be aware that, over the centuries, we have fought numerous wars against all the major nations in the EU, the latest, and most bloody, against the country which now dominates that organisation. While the truth of Palmerston's famous statement that "England has no eternal friends, England has no perpetual enemies, England has only eternal and perpetual interests", is not in doubt, nevertheless there are nations which have done far more to deserve being regarded as basically our friends than those on the Continent, who now choose to treat the UK with contempt and hostility because we have no wish to take part in their quest for a federal Europe.
As one looks at these nations one is amazed that their memory seems so short. Do the Belgians not recall the atrocities visited upon them in two World Wars, the Dutch the famine they endured at the end of the Second War, the French what happened at Ordour-sur-Glane, where the Waffen-SS murdered over 600 civilians, locking women and children in a church, and burning it down. Have the Poles forgotten the Lidice massacre, where again the Germans slaughtered all the people of a village in revenge for the death of Heydrich, or the destruction of Warsaw? Have the Czechs forgotten the dark night which descended upon them as the Nazis came, the people of Greece how the Germans crushed their country, the Yugoslavs who lost over a million fighting the same enemy? Do those who now cosy up to a Berlin dominated EU remember how, in living memory, the map of Europe was dotted with concentration camps, where millions of innocents were murdered?
The liberation these nations experienced was thanks to the massive efforts of the USA, the endurance of Britain and her Commonwealth, and the sacrifice made by the valiant Russians, but now we see the same European countries sneering at America as if they were hillbillies, treating the British as a target for abuse, and the Russians as enemies. As far as we in these islands are concerned we should remember what Enoch Powell said about Britain and Russia being, as the outsiders of Europe, natural allies, and of course we have far greater reason to regard the English speaking world across the oceans, both within, and outside the Commonwealth, as more reliable allies than those living just across the Channel. While the former are not our geographical neighbours, they share more with us morally than do many of the nations of Europe, and we have spilt our blood together to defeat some of the most evil regimes ever to have disfigured the world.
The Europeans like to think of themselves as sophisticates and therefore disparage President Trump because he is a straight forward patriot, who chooses to put the interests of his own people first. They attack President Putin, but he is no Stalin, seeking to impose an ideology on the rest of the world, or a Hitler, aiming at a world subjected to the Herrenvolk, but is a patriot who wants his country to be respected as a great power, but hardly wishes to undertake the military conquest of Europe. One can hardly blame the Russians for being paranoid about their security, given the manner in which they have been frequently attacked in the past. Of course that the British people should dare to revolt against the liberal left elite who have done so much damage to the UK over the last fifty years has come as a tremendous shock to the latter, and to their soulmates in the EU.
One should never generalise in order to be unpleasant to an individual based upon nationality, as any one person may be quite different to the national image, but it cannot be denied that every nation has an identity, which is often difficult to define, but nevertheless recognisable. The problem with the debate on the EU, as with many other disputes, is the elephant in the room, which everyone ignores, but which is the most important element to be discussed. In the case of Europe it is Germany. Many hope that Germany has fundamentally changed from the nation which, in less than the 150 years of its existence, plunged the planet into two world wars, based on what appeared to be a superiority complex of being a master race, but was really more of an inferiority complex. She came late to the table of unified sovereign states, and is aware that Britain and France in particular, have been such for centuries, once possessed global empires and still have worldwide influence, neither of which Germany enjoyed or enjoys.
Germany is the most significant country within the continental EU, but many have long feared her ambitions, such as Nicolas Ridley, one of Margaret Thatcher's senior ministers, when he said in 1990 that the proposed Economic and Monetary Union was "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe" and that giving up sovereignty to the EU was as bad as giving it up to Hitler. This may have been overstating the case but we in Britain should remember that Germany resents our role in twice preventing her achieving permanent military hegemony over Europe, and her recent bullying of Greece does not bode well for the future.
One hopes that the Germany is now a changed nation, but the economic storm which will engulf Europe when the Euro collapses, as it inevitably will, could yet awaken old urges that might again threaten peace. We should always seek good relations with European states, but nevertheless keep our powder dry, as historical precedents make clear that civilised behaviour can vanish like the morning dew when things go badly.
The reason the pseudo fascists elitists in this country feel such an affinity with the elites in the EU is that neither group has any sense of patriotism, actually having more in common with each other than with their fellow citizens. To them the idea that anyone might put the interests of their nation first is old fashioned, unsophisticated, and suited only to those they consider their intellectual and moral inferiors. They have no concept of democracy, thinking themselves uniquely qualified to rule, and have found the votes for Brexit, and for President Trump, incomprehensible. In a recent article in the Sunday Telegraph the author Robert Tombs reports comments from Matthew Parris, the former Tory MP, and a leading Remainer, that he does not trust the people, never has, and never will. Parris rejects the idea of an unseen bond between parliament and people, claiming that the job of the former is to 'curb the instincts of the mob'. This arrogant elitist believes that people such as himself must govern, by subterfuge if necessary. How can one have a reasoned debate with people like this, who are so conceited that they assume that they are always right, and those they like to think of the great unwashed must bow to their greater wisdom?
In reality no rational argument can change the attitude of the EU, or the fifth column of Remainers in the UK, as they are impervious to reason. All we can do is ignore them, and to treat the continentals not as friends and partners, but as competitors, of whom we should be wary. We are perfectly capable of facing them down, but we need leaders who believe this, not the pusillanimous political class we now have.
We must recognize, as President Roosevelt said, that "all we have to fear is fear itself"