Quote:
Originally Posted by jonbxx
Got the last one right  and number 1 was nearly right.
The answers are;
1 - Sweden
2 - Germany
3 - Macedonia
Bo, my Swedish buddy apparently echos the general 'cautious europhilia' of Sweden. They like the EU but are wary of too much integration too fast. He admitted that it would be a cold day in hell before Sweden joined the Euro! There is some resentment in Sweden that some countries in the EU haven't been taking their fair share of refugees, hence the rise of the SD party in the election this weekend. Many Swedes would like a pro-rated acceptance of refugee numbers across the EU which of course would go down like a cup of cold sick in the UK.
Ralf, my German friend is in his early 50s and so is still of that fiercely anti-nationalistic post WWII mindset of many Germans of that generation. There is very much a 'never again' attitude with older Germans and he is deeply concerned about the rise of nationalism both inside and outside of Germany.
Natasha, our Macedonian doesn't have a high opinion of Greece as their closest neighbours. In her opinion, the financial crisis in Greece was almost all self inflicted. |
1. Sweden, in common with many other smaller European countries, bears its fair share of the blame for the leave vote in the U.K. It’s all very well your friend lamenting that they have lost an ally against the Franco-German axis at the heart of the EU, but the reality is that too many of them were prepared to hide under their desks and leave the UK to take them on alone. They wanted the UK to do their dirty work for them and were content to leave us looking isolated in order to avoid upsetting Frau Merkel. This strategy has come back to bite them on the bum.
2. Germany burned Europe to the ground, twice, in the space of a generation. It’s all very well Germans of a certain age feeling post-war guilt but dealing with it is their business. If they feel the need to lock themselves in a padded cell for fear they might do it again, then they are at liberty to do so. They must not, however, judge us with the measure by which they judge themselves. We didn’t start the fire and we do not need to be locked up in federal hell alongside them. We are capable of making policy ourselves, without bringing the world to the brink of Armageddon or gassing six million of our own citizens in the name of racial purity. Any whinging about British attitudes to immigration should be set in that context before any German has the right to accuse us of behaving like it’s 1939, a year in which they were invading half of Central Europe and we were still hoping to peacefully stop them.
3. Your Macedonian friend it correct, Greece brought it on themselves; they got drunk on cheap credit. The EU, however, is guilty of leaving an alcoholic alone in a room with an unlocked liquor cabinet.
Also, it’s easy to see why a country that would immediately be a net beneficiary of EU spending would be so keen to join, and why it would be so disappointed to see one of the biggest net contributors planning to leave. Come next March, the magic money tree will become somewhat less fruitful than certain continental treasuries have been used to.