Can you imagine being tried in [Britain] for something that is not a crime here? If this sounds like something Kafka might have dreamt up, it is actually a proposal before EU interior ministers that will soon be enshrined in UK law. It is the sort of legislation that, were it going through Parliament, would be exciting a good deal of comment and debate; but because it is being promulgated in the councils of Europe, hardly anyone knows it is happening. The initiative, known as the Transfer of Criminal Proceedings, is the latest in a succession of pan-European reforms designed to speed up extradition, prosecution and conviction of criminals. You might think that is no bad thing – except that how a country organizes its system of criminal law and sanction is the very essence of nationhood. This is no longer about mutual co-operation to ensure the bad guys don't escape justice by hopping from one EU country to another; this is about putting in place the trappings of a single jurisdiction. – Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Consolidation is efficient?
Free-Market Analysis: Of all the things going on in the world today, the steady encroachment on civil liberties by the European Union is one of the most puzzling to decipher. It would be a little easier to understand if it were happening pre-Internet. But in fact it is happening in plain view of the world, especially the Western world – especially America – because the Internet is cataloguing every bit of the profoundly anti-democratic changes that are being made.
With the passage of the Lisbon treaty, the EU's pace regarding consolidation of Europe under one roof is picking up, though in our opinion it is no more convincing than before and presages a great deal of trouble (for the EU) ahead. At every level, we would argue, the EU is moving too fast and without proper care. It is most surprising. It illustrates, we believe, the compulsion the monetary elite seems to feel to consolidate gains in wealth and power in a post-Internet world. This is not an indication of strength, in our opinion.
What are the signs? They are obvious. The passage of the Lisbon treaty, which essentially puts in place a European constitution for the EU, was accomplished by ignoring votes against the parameters of the treaty by countries that were actually allowed to have votes, including the French, the very nation that provided much of the EU's impetus during its middle years. The Irish were the last to vote against the EU constitution-that-is-not-a-constitution (but is a treaty). They voted no, so the leaders of the EU basically told the leaders of Ireland (pro EU as almost all politicians are) that citizens would have to vote again. So they did. Then the EU poured an ocean of euros into Ireland and basically bought off anything that might conceivably pull a lever against Lisbon. This plus the recent collapse of the Irish economy was enough to make the difference. The Irish voted "yes" and the EU transformed from an economic partnership into a full-fledged nation state. This is the stuff that ends up in history books under "can you believe that." Or "thank goodness we didn't live then."
The point of all this is that the EU is not a corpus that came into being voluntarily. It has been erected through tactics that are questionable at the least and obviously illegitimate in any case. And every illegitimate action has been documented electronically. There is a problem with all this. It is not the illegitimate actions per se. It is something worse, that lies at the very core of the EU.
It used to be that nations were conquered by the sword, but even then the conqueror usually had some sort of pan-national justification for his actions. When Charlemagne consolidated Europe, he did it under the banner of the Holy Roman Church – his actions were conducted for the greater glory of God and the church. But what is the EU's rationale? Perhaps it is socialism, but the religion of socialism is supposed to be welcomed by "the people" – and the EU isn't especially welcomed by anyone these days. The EU, in other words, is bereft of an animating purpose, has been erected illegally and is now taking steps to consolidate a power base that its leaders amassed without creating an over-arching justification.
The EU lacks a DOMINANT SOCIAL THEME. This is significant not because it illustrates a fundamental lacunae (it does) but because it shows, in our humble opinion, just how panicked the monetary elite really is. The elite tends to work generationally, and if one looks at the ongoing attempts to consolidate nation-states into a global entity (the apparent and putative goal, events would seem to show), the pace is slow and is usually laid-out with care.
After the American War Between the States (which basically put to rest much of the American Republic), the idea that the war was fought over slavery became the dominant social theme. The First World War never had much of a theme, but the Second World War's dominant social theme soon became obvious and powerful. Every schoolchild knows it – that Britain and then, especially, America, saved the world from the Hitler. (This ignores, of course, the support Hitler had to begin with from both Britain and America, and the foundational aspects of the Reich, which were laid directly after World War One in a series of Draconian treaties.)
The dominant social theme provided by the monetary elite (for it was indeed the monetary elite of Europe and America that triggered the EU to begin with) was that the EU, by creating a common European market, would ensure that what happened previously in Europe would "never happen again." But this dominant social theme no longer holds sway now that the EU is so much more than a common market. It is a nation state of its own, encompassing a vast number of additional nation states.
We return to conclusions voiced in previous iterations of the Bell. Those leading the EU are taking a very big gamble. No sociopolitical power of this size has ever been erected so swiftly, absent violence. And it is taking place in a Europe that seems tranquil on the surface but is actually a seething hotbed of tribal loyalties and ancient cultures that go back in some cases to nearly the Stone Age. Without an animating dominant social theme in place, with the Internet cataloguing virtually every aspect of the EU's illegitimate actions, we begin to get a feeling that the elite steering the ship has left it on autopilot. There is no plan B. Just consolidate with maximum haste. Unless this course is modified, we have to believe this latest experiment in a greater Europe will end in tears, and worse.
