23/05/2012
Brendan O'Neill on
Spiked online is getting hot under the collar about the faux eurosceptics in the media, the "new clique of infantile Brussels-bashers". They are the ones who branded French and Dutch electorates "xenophobic" for voting against the EU Constitution, labelled the Irish "treacherous" for doing the same, and are now posing as brave critics of Brussels.
Everywhere you look, he observes, it seems the same observers who once railed against the thick "Europhobic" masses who dared to say "no" to the EU in referendums are now coming out as Europhobic themselves, or at least as disappointed with Brussels.
Addressing this Johnny-Come-Lately tendency, O'Neill then suggests there are five problems with their new-found dislike of Brussels, not least of which is their profound misunderstanding of the nature of the EU.
In this, we are told that the "semi-sceptical lobby" believes a handful of individuals around Brussels, led by the demonic Merkel, are forcing European nations to dance to their tune. In Greece, Merkel is depicted as a Hitlerian figure. Others rail against the troika (the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank) which is enforcing bailout packages, believing it is holding all of Europe to ransom.
Interesting though the article is, however, I would not confine it to the "new clique of infantile Brussels-bashers". The old-established clique is easily recognisable from the list of beliefs that O'Neill sets out, and causes just as many problems.
Casting Merkel in a Hitlerian role, for instance, is but one of many similar ways that the established eurosceptics choose to project their antipathy to the EU. Most often , they will seek to project the entire European Union as a Hitlerian construct, frequently giving it the label "Fifth Reich", plating a swastika in the ring of stars.
When they are not equating it with Fascism, Communism becomes a handy model, with references to EUSSR, the swastika being replaced by the hammer and sickle, in a tasteful shade of yellow to match the stars. And, if the EU wasn't set up by the Nazis or the Soviets, it was the Bilderbergers, the Trilaterals, the Fabians, or combinations of all of them. There may even be shape-shifting lizards in there somewhere.
Invariably, though, Germany is cast in the role of the demon â either that or German leaders. And it is most often suggested that the eventual United States of Europe will become a German empire, ruled from Berlin. Rarely do these eurosceptics even begin to consider the role of France, as does
Raedwald in a recent post.
When it comes to the UK, Heath â as the man who took as in â is described as a "traitor". His act was a "betrayal" and the poor, freedom-loving British people were "deceived". They were deceived again in the 1975 referendum although, strangely, Wilson is never seen as a traitor â even if he was, as has been strongly rumoured, working for the Soviets.
Little do these established eurosceptics realise that most uncommitted people take one look at the language, the mantras and the rhetoric â and run. For some, the "swivel-eyed" epithet is not entirely unmerited. Well-meaning and often dedicated they may be, they do more harm to the eurosceptic cause than enough.
O'Neill has some advice for the "semi-sceptical lobby" â they must grow up. But that advice could apply more widely.
If we're going to oppose the EU, he says, then let's do it for the right reasons. Not because it is an evil entity fashioned by German neoliberals and it would be better to hide behind our national borders rather than engage with it, but because it is a profoundly anti-democratic creation of Europe's aloof modern élites which actually prevents proper European unity.
Bringing the peoples of Europe closer together is a wonderful idea, O'Neill thinks. And if we challenge both the oligarchical EU and its infantile protectionist critics, we might just start to bring that about.
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