The latest stand-off between Britain and Germany will of course have a range of consequences for this country: some good, some bad. 

To understand the reality behind this political pantomime, we should first step back and put recent events into perspective.

It has actually been a slow but relentless strategy on the part of the Germans, lasting many years.  Now – in the final stages – Britain has eliminated itself from the game by kicking itself into the long grass.  Gung-ho Tories are indulging themselves in the usual, out-dated ‘bulldog-spirit’  flag-waving and the Merkozy team must be doubled-up with laughter as Cameron plays at exercising his worthless veto against new EU treaty proposals.

Labour’s Jaqui Smith (not a usual source of wisdom) tweeted: “Surely a veto would stop something. This sounds like getting off a train which then continues to its destination without you.”

The foolish Brits have done exactly as predicted. Rommel would have been proud.

Germany’s timing is excellent. With so many EU nations desperate to stay in the club and not go the same way as Greece, Ireland or perhaps even Italy and Spain, the newly-enlarged European ‘family’ will agree to anything Germany wants. 

All EU countries will sign whatever treaty is put before them, and will obey all orders (sorry, ‘financial regulations’) or suffer the consequences: meaning fines, penalties and the possibility of being dropped from the club to vanish without trace in what amounts to an economic death-camp, somewhere in the frozen wastes of Eastern Europe.  Sounds familiar?  Who needs stormtroopers when you can place a large financial jackboot across the throats of every country in Europe?

It’s obvious that in recent years Germany actively encouraged the newer EU countries to join the club.   Like a wise old hunter who watches small animals enter his trap to take the bait, Germany knew only too well that once these fragile economies were in the grip of the Euro they would end up at the mercy of German demands and controls.    It’s inconceivable that the clever Germans didn’t know that the Greeks, Portuguese or any of the smaller nations would have poor fiscal policies and controls.  Even the Italians and Spanish would show their true colours after a while. They were all awash with EU money and grants to pay for their roads and development. To hell with financial and budgetary controls… it was a European gravy train and the piper would never have to be paid.

Perhaps as an amusing bonus for the Germans, this enlargement of Europe created an added financial burden for Britain at the same time. Many thousands of new EU citizens came to England in their droves to live and to claim the social security benefits they couldn’t get in France, Germany or anywhere else. It would always be the stupid, ‘fair play’ British who would let everyone take advantage of our tendency to follow the rules.  But that’s an argument for another time.

To bring us up to date, the Germans have now succeeded in winning a complete victory on the political and economic battlefield.  Leading such a large group of fragile nations, each clinging to the other for life, Germany can continue demanding anything it wants. It will soon take control of European money markets at the expense of the City of London.  After all, where will China, India and South America invest when it comes to business with Europe?  Certainly not in Britain, whose financial services industry will now rapidly shrink and relocate elsewhere.  It will be Frankfurt, not London’s square mile, in future.

To reinforce Germany’s position by adding the moral high ground to their victory,  America and Britain are generally seen to have created the current economic meltdown through their institutional abuse of the money markets. We are the ones who are discredited across the world and seen as the villains of the piece, not Germany.

On top of that, the all-powerful Americans are a busted flush: disliked, discredited and disorganised, with the British hanging onto their coat-tails. Even Hitler couldn’t have dreamt of that victory.

With the well-publicised U.S. economic problems, and unpopular involvement in wars and ‘regime change’ around the world, it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to see Germany’s new Europe wresting control of the entire Western money market from America within five or ten years.

Eighty years ago, Hitler could only ever see a military solution to world domination for the ‘Übermensch’, based on historic precedents. He certainly had the vision, but he was embittered by the German surrender terms at Versailles in 1919 and therefore too impatient to obtain his revenge and retribution in any other way than by military force.   He failed to take into account the emerging, rampant capitalism of the West, or to see the financial markets as a more effective vehicle for his ambitions. This is ironic when you consider that his own rise to power came about after the Wall Street crash in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression, which led to Germany’s economic weakness in the 1930s.

Now, after a wait of only 75 years – a mere blink of an eye in historic terms – the Germans have turned their total military defeat in 1945 into a resounding victory in Europe. All without a drop of blood being spilled, or even much real resistance.

Even if it means some difficult times ahead for Britain, you have to admire the old enemy.

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What of Britain now?   Is this all bad for us, or is it a blessing in disguise?

Read the next in this series, coming soon.

So now Germany is telling the spineless Cameron what to do on a referendum.  (Telegraph, 18 Nov).

Cameron looks increasingly like a modern Neville Chamberlain.  Appeasement of the Germans for fear of causing trouble didn’t work the first time and it won’t work this time.

His lack of leadership, and the Tories’ refusal to let us have a referendum on EU withdrawal, shows the true state of Britain’s democracy: non-existent unless you happen to be rich or part of the ruling elite.
It simply suits the bankers and the ruling class to stay in the EU and just let the ordinary British worker and taxpayer suffer the consequences.

As for Germany, it’s the same wolf but in different clothing.  ‘Political union’ was attempted in more direct fashion by a certain little corporal back in the 1930s.

Maybe the Germans learned, after the 2nd military-led attempt failed, that the only way to assert the will of the ‘Ubermensch’ over Europe once and for all was by economic means instead.

Now they have nearly succeeded.

We gave them the money and tools back in 1945 to succeed in defeat. Meanwhile, Britain remained literally in hock to the Americans for the next 50 years and we never really recovered.

What have we got to lose by pulling out of Europe?  Are all EU nations suddenly not going to buy any of our goods and services? Unlikely.  Will all EU banks / businesses default on loans and investments made by the British?  Unlikely.

Meanwhile, we save the many £billions it costs us on EU membership – much of which was wasted on the massive EU grants given to Greece, Spain and the others.

They have had their ‘boom’ over the past 20 years at our expense, and now (by staying in the EU) we would be expected to pay for their ‘bust’ as well. Heads they win, tails we lose.

Get out now.
Stay out… and to hell with the Germans!

The effects of Tories privatising Britain are starting to hit home, and it’s the people who take the hit, not the rich or the bankers who created the problems.

Well, what did people expect when they voted Tory last year?  Were they taken in by the nice green tree in their new logo?  No more ‘nasty party’?  What a Con trick.

Under the Tories, ordinary people are treated like so much detritus:  human debris which is left behind after ‘market forces’ are given free rein in society.

Greatly reduced public services, awarding valuable public contracts to foreign companies, huge job losses… it feels like Thatcher all over again.

“Services for older people, services for disabled people are suffering. There has been a dramatic cut to information, advice and guidance, which is something that at a time of economic hardship we need more of, not less.” (ePolitix.com)

As for the so-called ‘big society’, and the very people and organisations expected by the Tories to fill the gap left in our public services:

“The capacity for the third sector to grow more volunteers is being reduced, as volunteer development budgets are being axed. This all combines to reduce the status of volunteering and to raise the question of what purpose the government intends the voluntary sector to serve.”   (ePolitix.com)

So much for cynical Tory claims that “we’re all in this together”.

Thousands upon thousands of newly-unemployed people will be forced to claim benefits while they search – probably in vain – for another job.   New jobs  will be hard to find in the private sector, and unlikely to be at the same level of pay. Result?  Growing ranks of long-term unemployed, exploited by Tory-voting bosses offering low pay and lousy conditions.   A cynic might say that some are “in this together” rather more than others.

And who do we have to oppose the Tories now?   Certainly not the Lib Dumbs, who will do anything to cling onto a bit of limelight for themselves.  We had high hopes for the beloved Vince, but even he’s a busted flush these days. 

No opposition from Labour, either.   None of their front bench is up to much now that men like Blair, Prescott, Milburn and others have gone.  “Blair?!”, you cry?   Well, after we failed to recognise the strength and ability of people like David Owen in the 80s and 90s, we did eventually find someone to take on the Tory enemy.

We can debate Blair’s various achievements or otherwise, but he did turn out to be pretty good at stuffing the Tories.      Now that the wrong Milliband has been elected as party leader (the gormless windbag pictured, right) we can expect the barren years of Foot and Kinnock to come back and haunt us, probably for another 18 years.   Tory toffs Dave and George must think all their Christmases have come at once.

A lot of young voters won’t remember Thatcher or the huge social rift she created in our society during the 1980s:  the years which embedded a deep layer of uneducated, unemployable thugs that we all complain about now.   Enterprising thugs whose only way of engaging with the economics of our society is to get a bigger attack dog and terrorise people on the street.  Sure, the Tories made all the right noises about enterprise and giving people better opportunities (as they always do), but the reverse happens when you allow the profit motive to rule your social policies.

Factor in the still-smouldering global economic crisis – with defaults by Greece, Ireland, Portugal and more to follow – and we have some long, hard years in front of us.  Much harder than people are expecting.

There are no lights at the end of the tunnel this time unless we stop the Tories in their slimy tracks.

If you read the Tory blog, ‘conservativehome‘, you’ll see they’re deluding themselves into thinking that David  ‘call me Dave’ Cameron has escaped his ‘toff’ tag just because Labour aren’t using it as a jibe now.
(Cameron is shown, left, next to his ancestor, King William IV – also known as ‘Silly Billy’ – who twice tried unsuccessfully to force a Tory government on the country, in 1832 and again in 1834/35.)

Cameron IS a toff in the traditional sense of the term because of his privileged background, and trying to shrug off the image is pointless. It is precisely because Cameron, Osborne and many other Tories have this privileged, upper-class experience of life – and an obvious vested interest in preserving it – that their claim to have the welfare of ordinary citizens at heart is so unconvincing.

Why would the Tories be so sensitive about the ‘toff’ thing if they weren’t desperately embarrassed about it in electoral terms?  They know it will lose them the votes of those who just can’t identify with their upper-class values, so they – and Dave – are trying to kid us that he’s one of us really.  That – in their own words – they’re not the ‘nasty party’ any more.   Trying to kid us that what Conservatives are interested in is mending our ‘broken society’.  Right…

If indeed it is ‘broken’, they will desperately want us to forget – of course – that it was the many years of Tory government and sleaze in the 1970s, 80s and 90s which promoted the philosophy of greed and fat profits at the expense of ordinary working people.  This allowed and encouraged the rise of fat-cat bankers and financial chancers who have finally wrecked our economy and made many thousands of us unemployed.

The Tories are wholly responsible for widening the vast gap between the rich and the rest of us,  laying the foundations for today’s society where young people can’t afford to buy a home any more and where there is nowhere near enough social housing to meet the needs of ordinary British citizens.    And yet they now have the gall to blame the Labour government for all this.

(Labour were stupid enough to get sucked in by pandering to the greedy, just to get elected in 1997 and to stay in office, but they weren’t responsible for the philosophy that created these conditions.  It still tries vainly to ‘square the circle’ of  creating social equality while placating the better-off middle classes who are only interested in tax cuts and big bonuses at the expense of the rest of us. But that’s another issue…)

The reality of a Tory government is one where the rich and privileged look after their own.
IF they manage to fool enough of us to get elected to office, then we’ll see them revert to type:  serving the interests of the rich and powerful, of the big businesses and of their fat-cat political sponsors, while paying lip service to helping ordinary working people.

Just look at the way Cameron’s fellow Eton toff, Boris Johnson, is now handing out planning permissions left right and centre to a host of ugly buildings in London that won’t do anything to improve the  lives of Londoners and which will vulgarise the London skyline.
(Wonder if any of his supporters, sponsors and cronies are involved in property development?  We probably know the answer to that one…).

Tune in to BBC Parliament / City Hall or look at it on the BBC iPlayer and watch how Tory toff Boris deals with the business of being Mayor of London.   He’s certainly funny – but see how he obviously has total contempt for the democratic process and treats the Mayor’s question time meeting like a public school debating society.  He waffles and blunders his way through it all, while those he no doubt sees as his social inferiors try to pin him down on anything without success. It’s all a great joke to him, but a frustrating and sickening sight and a good indication of how his privileged kind behave towards the rest of us.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that people have short memories and there are many people of voting age now who have only ever seen this newly-concocted, almost vomit-inducing Tory sincerity, so they know no better.

Everyone over the age of 35 knows the truth about Tory fat-cat priorities, their contempt for workers, trades unions and the millions of ordinary people like us who serve only to line the pockets of them and their cronies.

Once a toff, always a toff  – and forever a fat-cat Tory – however they dress themselves up or use a nice green tree as a party logo.