Arrivederci Roma

I suppose that I should spare a few words for the UK leaving the European Union (EU) on the 31st of January ...

Mr Farage's Moment Arrived .... And Now Its Gone.

It says a lot about this whole process, that I nearly forgot about it, and posted something else instead

Learning Histories Lessons

Now that many think that we are possibly watching the collapse of our own version of a Western Civilisation that is based upon a Treaty Of Rome, I am reminded of the collapse of that earlier incarnation of our civilisation, one operating under a different treaty of Rome .... the Pax Romana.

A world that collapsed just as surely as ours may do, and under much the same pressures. Then the collapse was caused by an un-assimilated mass migration of peoples into the Western Roman Empire, who didn't speak the same language, worship the same gods, or share the same history (except via earlier conflicts) .... sound familiar?

The Fall Of Rome And The Western Civilisation
Didn't Happen In One Day ......

Strangely as that Roman Empire collapsed, many of its inhabitants also failed to recognise their world was finishing. Some even thought that it was being renewed by the new vigorous blood lines entering the 'Empire' (think 'migrant workers'). They were wrong of course, but they were too close to the events to realise the disaster unfolding around them.

Generation Brexit

One final thought on the EU referendum. I haven't heard any political commentator remark on the fact that its the generation who voted to stay in the EEC in 1975, who have turned against it and now lead the vote to leave. These voters are sneeringly portrayed by David Cameron and others as 'little englanders' now, but these were the same people who were the 'brave new Europeans' back in the day.

So why has no one has really questioned why, the generation who led us in to Europe, are so disillusioned by the whole experience and want to leave?

I know one thing that really grates with that generation of voters, and oddly it isn't necessarily mass EU immigration, although that's undoubtedly a big factor for many. No, its the downright lies we were told at the time.

In 1972 Edward Heath told us that the then Economic Union was only a common trade market:

“There are some in this country who fear that going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified."

A Sea Of Federalists To A Man, Signed The Treaty Of Rome