British pride before the fall
Britons could have sung their national anthem, God Save the Queen, over the weekend. They tend to do so during times of soaring national pride.
That was certainly the case during the glory days of Prime Minister Winston Churchill or in the wake of Thatcher's Falklands War, which restored British rule to the islands. It also applies to some extent to Prime Minister David Cameron, who safeguarded Britain's honor in the face of pressure from eurozone countries.
Currently - and this could change overnight - Cameron has the upper hand. He did not capitulate to the demands of eurozone countries, which Britain never joined in the first place. He refused to help pay for the deficits of lazy countries that had fed European economists false data.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is indeed a great stateswoman. Unlike financially reckless European nations, Germany under her leadership had good savings and consumption rates, having learnt its lesson from the runaway inflation of 1929. Nevertheless, the Britons do not want to bail out the remaining lazy nations.
To borrow an Israeli refrain, the British people demand social justice. If you do not work, you should not reap the benefits.
If only Israeli policy makers adopted such a policy: not toward have-nots who are incapable of earning a living, but toward those have-nots who are able-bodied yet choose to be poor.
London chose to pursue economic growth on its own, advocating a policy where each nation sinks or swims based on its efforts and talents. So that Europe can have a first-rate technological and economic future. So that Europe does not turn into a history museum with a past, but no future, save for the tourism industry, as predicted by one famous elder historian.
What is at stake here is not just the EU economy or the financial tsunami that has swept the continent, but each nation's distinctive culture.
Germany and France want to turn the EU into the U.S. Germany envisions a federal government that rules the continent (with Berlin serving as Washington, D.C., of course). England, Spain and Sweden would have the same status as Arkansas, Florida and Texas. But England has refused to blur or quash its unique national identity. Nor does it see a need to do so to other cultures on the continent. Napoleon Bonaparte and Admiral Nelson will be enemies for eternity. The French will always have their Joan of Arc and the British their Magna Carta.
But unfortunately such national pride may not stand the test of reality. If the English impose their vision in place of the German vision of a binding centralized EU, the global economy - and the British economy - may suffer serious setbacks. Globalization will recede if customs fees and high excise taxes are reintroduced. Standards of living will fail to improve. The old borders - which existed in name only - will be once again delineated on the map. With a future like this, "God Save the Queen" sounds more like a prayer than an anthem.
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