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Wednesday 6 March 2019

Macron's puerile SimEU

The extraordinary document that emerged from the Élysée on Monday night was at first glance in-credible. I thought it was a clever spoof. But no. It seems that M.Macron had kissed his grannie good morning, scoffed his croissant and sat himself down at the big gold desk in his Palace and built his own fantasy SimEU.

Here is the barracks with the SimEU army, here the detention prison of the SimEU Office of Internal Security; here is the SimEU Central Bank and the SimEU Ministry of Finance. And the whole thing populated by busy and happy little SimEU citizens on SimEU minimum wage playing safely on social media regulated by the SimEU Prefecture for Internet Safety, after a hard day's work inventing innovative new Euro things at the SimEU Creative Foundation.

Really, I'm hardly joking. The whole document, of which he is inordinately proud, reads just like a teenage boy's fantasy world. The document even has the Heroes of SimEU, the French and German Leaders, waving graciously from the balconies of their SimEU palaces at crowds of adoring SimEU citizens.

He even addressed it to the "Citoyens d’Europe" despite the Federacy having only 61% of the continent's population under its flag. This degree of self-delusion was not lost on Henry Newman, who replied to Macron via his Telegraph column
I was struck that your letter largely conflates Europe with the EU, eliding the distinction between a political union of 27 members and the broader concerns of our continent which includes proud nations such as Switzerland, Norway and - soon - the UK, which are friends and allies of the EU but outside of that political bloc. Your letter has various suggestions for improving the EU. Some may be welcome, others less so. But each proposal involves the EU gaining further powers and greater influence over people’s lives, at the expense of sovereign states, when we both know that right across the bloc a strong majority want the EU to do the precise opposite. For you, it seems the answer to every question is always more Brussels.
Had this letter been written and published in the late 1990s, at the heights of EU hubris, before the foundations of the Federacy started to show cracks, it might, just might, have been hailed as a visionary manifesto for an ideal EU Central State, authoritarian but benign. But we're now in the second decade of the following century, the UK has left and the remaining 27 are split on everything from migration to finance, the currency is tanking, the economy is sclerotic and the streets are filled with tear gas and blinded Gilets jaunes.

That the President of France is so deluded, so out of touch with the reality of political possibility, so unrealistic about his expectations is of deep concern. Our teenage fantasist really believes he can secure a date with Jennifer Aniston.

23 comments:

Span Ows said...

'The king was in the all-together...'

Anonymous said...

'The UK has left'

Sadly not, yet.

Dave_G said...


But this isn't just Macron and his vision is it? - it's the Globalist heirarchy pushing/encouraging him and exposing themselves for the over-bearing, self-righteous, clueless, control-freaks that they really are.

Their belief in their own superiority is not only embarrassing (for them) but openly sinister and, now, exposed for all to see.

The likes of Anon (the troll, not genuine anon posters) really are deluding themselves if they cannot see through the facade of lies and misdirection that under lie the EU and its intentions.

jack ketch said...

*the collective German body politik rolled its eyes heavenward*

I dare say today, if she hasn't already,that Merkel will damn his utterances with faint praise, as she did last time too.

Stephen J said...

Unfortunately for us ordinary folk, our government swallows the same sort of kool-aid (channelling the yanks ere) as Micron.

Another clumsy because of how close it is, but artful because of how insignificant it is, Jo Cox moment is now underway...

...Those pesky Irish republicans, trying to stop their neighbours becoming independent.

Why I oughta...

DeeDee99 said...

Le Petit Macron has delusions of France governing all Europe (and Germany paying for it). It's the same goal as Napoleon and Hitler - just different methods being deployed to try and achieve it.

These continental megalomaniacs never give up.

Sackerson said...

Micron and Weirdeau make a pair of bookends, don't you think?

John in Cheshire said...

"Our teenage fantasist really believes he can secure a date with Jennifer Aniston."

I suspect that Jennifer Aniston is too young for the French tart. He's more likely to be lusting after Brigitte Bardot.

Smoking Scot said...

I looked into the grand plans hatched by the EU a while back Raedwald. Got me a neat map of what it has meant from the Russian standpoint and I put this forward for you to approve or simply bin.

I believe it's relevant to your post from yesterday and helps explain why Macron continues to speak to those within his perceived bubble. Also why the Yellow Vests are getting mighty pissed off at helping pay for this via "green" taxes.

http://mullingscot.com/brexit-good-for-uk-and-eu.html

Your choice Squire.

Raedwald said...

Smoking Scot - Happy to oblige

John Brown said...

Mr. Macron’s proposals for further restrictions on new businesses, increased protectionism and the control of the internet as well as the MSM, shows that he has learned nothing from the way the 18th/19th century centralised, Catholic governance of France blocked their ability to match the UK’s Industrial Revolution.

Consequently Mr. Macron’s France and EU will be late to the AI revolution.

This is of course why France and the EU are so worried by the UK’s exit.

There is no way that Mr. Macron would be worried by the demise of the UK, in fact quite the reverse.

He simply doesn’t want to have to worry that a neighbouring country just might do better by not being in the EU and out of his control.

DiscoveredJoys said...

The SimEU (or 'ever closer union' with a new smart design sketch provided by Macron) is another Utopia. We know from history that Utopias are typically idolised by left wing collectivists. We also know that there are many dead people lying at the side of the roads to previous Utopias. The end justifies the means, and so on and on, until there is nothing other than the means, and Utopia is always another final struggle away.

People who push for Utopia may be well intended, but we should treat them as a deadly disease.

Martin (retired - not that one) said...

This communication is an illustration of the different track that Europe, sorry, the EU is already taking, now that the UK is leaving - and it is.

It is likely to be more social market leaning, now that the most neoliberal of the Big Three need not be considered any longer, as Varoufakis has also articulated rather well.

Macron says much that the founding fathers of the EU envisaged, and it is striking, that as far as I recall, not a single British politician has ever said anything like it, and nor did anyone else during the referendum campaign. I have always wondered why not, but normative behaviour can be learnt osmotically I suppose.

I'm sorry if some people found those words jarring, I personally found them rather refreshing. But console yourselves, that after EU exit, UK opinion on what happens on the Mainland won't count for much, so some people can save their time and blood pressure by spending their time otherwise.

Rossa said...

Ironically, the Glorious Leaders of the EU pay lip service to their fantasy, while being quite happy to use their national sovereignty (that they don’t really want us to have) to regulate outside of Brussels diktats.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-04/germany-plans-directly-regulate-russia-led-nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline

Domo said...

"I dare say today, if she hasn't already,that Merkel will damn his utterances with faint praise, as she did last time too."

I forget, is Germany in charge or is it a union of equals?

Wessexboy said...

Nice one, Smoking Scot!

Mark said...

Martin,

I doubt if anybody posting here found Microns words jarring. Don't know about anybody else but I was quite happy to hear the truth for once (finally!)

This has been the trajectory for years, possibly decades. If your intention is a single state called "Europe" (or whatever), the individual nations must disappear.

This is not some new direction, it's always been the intention (Lisbon treaty?) This is what a remain vote in 2016 would have consented to. Rather more pertinently, and has been pointed out on this blog and elsewhere numerous times, "reversing brexit" means accepting this too. As would any attempt to rejoin.

We are well out of it and as Bernard Connolly pointed out 25 years ago (referring to not joining the Euro I believe but even more relevant here). If they do try to "get" us, a few trade difficulties will be a small price to pay to stay out of their clutches.

Those trapped within the Euro will mot be so fortunate

Mark said...

Martin,

I doubt if anybody posting here found Microns words jarring. Don't know about anybody else but I was quite happy to hear the truth for once (finally!)

This has been the trajectory for years, possibly decades. If your intention is a single state called "Europe" (or whatever), the individual nations must disappear.

This is not some new direction, it's always been the intention (Lisbon treaty?) This is what a remain vote in 2016 would have consented to. Rather more pertinently, and has been pointed out on this blog and elsewhere numerous times, "reversing brexit" means accepting this too. As would any attempt to rejoin.

We are well out of it and as Bernard Connolly pointed out 25 years ago (referring to not joining the Euro I believe but even more relevant here). If they do try to "get" us, a few trade difficulties will be a small price to pay to stay out of their clutches.

Those trapped within the Euro will mot be so fortunate

jack ketch said...


I forget, is Germany in charge or is it a union of equals?-Domo

Some are, of course, more equal than others!

As far as I could tell from last nights TV news, the prevailing opinion among German politicians is that Macron is desperately trying to avoid a caning in the EU Elections. Even Juncker didn't seem all that impressed.

Raedwald said...

Germany is unique in having a constitution that trumps EU law. It was 'locked' to prevent any resurgence of NS fiddling, and absolutely nothing Brussels can do will ever change it. So the EU has to workaround it.

To an outsider, it seems that whenever Germany hears something from Brussels she doesn't like, she sucks her lips, shakes her head regretfully and refers it to the Constitutional Court to be rejected.

Martin (retired - not that one) said...

My understanding is that several countries' constitutions trump EU law, Raedwald.

Were it not for that, then Poland would have implemented the EU-wide ban on halal, kosher, etc. slaughter methods, for instance. It was ruled in Poland as unconstitutional, so like the UK, it retains its opt-out.

No, the EU is neither a union of equals nor ruled by Germany Domo. The members have population-weighted numbers of MEPs and QMV votes in the Council. Germany has about one-eight of the MEPs and the maximum twenty-nine votes in the Council along with France, Italy, and the UK.

Germany may not be more powerful post UK exit, however, as the balance of power will be shifted towards the more left wing southern members, it would appear.

Martin (retired - not that one) said...

I've just been reading about constitutions v. EU law and it's complicated, but basically EU law, within its defined competences, does trump constitutions. The Polish case is a red herring, as they could always opt out of that one anyway.

However, there are exceptions, and the German one in some areas is excused, as I read it, because it itself is the subject of pre-existing international agreements, one of the instances forming an exception.

I'm sorry if anyone was misled by my previous post, Raedwald.

Anonymous said...

Microleon, flies the flag, Germany provides the words, in the EU it was ever thus.