The EU's democratic deficit...

I find it incredible that Europeans appear to shrug their shoulders without care as the Euro continues relentlessly to consign millions to the waste of mass-unemployment, trash billions of hard-earned retirement savings and remorselessly replace democratically elected leaders with EU-approved, unelected technocrats. And so far, what has been the EU's answer to the greatest financial crisis of the modern era? More EU, deeper integration, and no democracy.

None of us can believe that Merkel, Sarkosy or the EU technocracy are in any way inspired by the rise of National Socialism that so consumed Europe in the 1930's - destroying participatory democracy and ending in the deaths of millions of ordinary Europeans who did not submit to the will of a small unelected, ideologically-driven elite, who believed they knew better than the people they ruled.

But we do remember.

Charles Moore on the Euro crisis...

What Europe faces, then, is a disaster that was predictable – and predicted – and is now unavoidable. In the process, millions will lose their jobs, an entire generation will miss the opportunities which their parents enjoyed, and blood will probably be shed. The rulers of Europe have never been so wrong since the late 1930s. Charles Moore writes on the Euro crisis...

Lawson on the Eurozone...

The people who are responsible for promoting the Eurozone venture in the first place should be ashamed of themselves. They are the architects of the most irresponsible political initiative that I can recall... Lord Lawson talking on Radio 4 Today program.

Euro Disintegration

Reading Dan Hannan's post and the wonderful metaphor from the comments below it - 'We all want to be good neighbours, but see no need to knock through the adjoining walls of our houses and marry into the family in order to be considered good neighbours' - I realise that Cameron needs to be a little more honest with European partners.

Britain's position on the Euro is unequivocal, widely understood and correct. But Cameron should - at least in private - now be preparing his European partners for life beyond the Euro. All those countries in a fiscal mess should be actively planning for life outside the Euro. Leadership means setting out the economic and political imperatives needed for a stable and prosperous Euro area, whilst supporting those unable to commit to the financial prerequisites. I also note that Iceland, Norway & Switzerland participate in the Schengen Area despite being non-EU member states.

The disintegration of Euroland is going to be complicated, expensive and very messy. But Cameron, as a relative outsider and leader of Europe's primary financial hub, should now be suggesting at a level of some impartiality, the various routes out of this problem.

Eurozone crisis

Great piece from Adrian Hamilton in today’s Independent suggesting we are now witnessing the second phase of the Credit Crunch - the unwinding of debt. This is as much a political issue as a financial one, demanding political decisions about expenditure, tax and investment.

“The trouble with the trillion dollar rescue package put together by the Eurozone governments was that it once again bailed out the commercial banks with taxpayer's money, this time at the cost to the public of dramatic and early expenditure cuts.”

What needs to happen now is the rescheduling of the debt along time frames “more realistic to the national fiscal positions and popular acceptance.”