| The view from England. |
[Telegraph] For Remainers, the EU has always been a bastion of grown-uppery: grown-up policies, grown-up attitudes and grown-up attitude towards humane, collective action. Writers make pilgrimages to Brussels, Berlin and Paris to report back in glowing terms on how the grown-ups do it, making unfavourable comparisons to horrible infantile Britain, with its poor impulse control and malfunctioning economy.The last week has provided a potent reminder of how misplaced this veneration of the EU’s heavy hitters is. Before we get to Germany, let us begin with France, which is, once again, in the grips of an apocalyptic rioting spree. Streets are literally aflame following the police shooting of a 17-year-old boy. Although rioting, mass disruption and thuggish violence occur with comparative regularity in France — the sinister mob of gilets jaunes and recent protests against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms provide just two examples — these appear to be the worst in 18 years.
In France, this means public buildings burnt, over a thousand arrests, fireworks galore, looting and arson attacks on schools, town halls and police stations across the country. Imagine something on even a fraction of that scale occurring now in Britain. Precisely. You can’t.
And surprise, surprise, Macron — the Remainiac posterboy — appears once again to have precisely zero control over his country. He has been urged to declare a state of emergency, and he has called the violence "unjustifiable". That’s all very well. But the underlying tensions between French police and its
Yet until last week, reading the outpourings of die-hard Remainers you’d have thought Europeans had never had it better. You could easily find rhapsodies about how, freed from Britain’s toddler tantrums, the EU had been able to forge ahead and "deepen" its partnerships and develop greater geopolitical clout.
One has to laugh. Greater geopolitical clout without Britain? Leaving aside America, it was Britain and Britain alone that gave Volodymyr Zelensky prompt and forceful assistance, all while Europe, seemingly held back by pacifist Germany, made pointless gestures as Putin’s bombs rained down on Kyiv.