The British Euro Farce

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

LONDON — The British, or rather English, mistrust of what lies beyond the Channel has always been fathomless. W.H. Auden, observing a “cult of salads,” jested that “before very long” the south of England would resemble “the Continong.” There across the sea, on a suspect Continent, lay lands of constitutions, Napoleonic legal codes, defeated armies, imperfect freedom, rabies, wife-swapping and garlic.

Auden, of course, was writing before the birth of the Tory Euro-sceptic, the pinstriped effluence of an ex-imperial nation. This specimen’s ascendancy was reflected in Prime Minister David Cameron’s veto of a Europe-bolstering treaty change to defend the euro through greater fiscal cooperation and tougher sanctions on nations going Greek.

The Euro-sceptic wants less Europe not more. In the place of “ever closer union,” the Euro-sceptic wants ever looser union and, if possible, none whatsoever. In his or her — and it’s overwhelmingly his — heart beats the spirit of Britain’s “finest hour” and the United Kingdom (with a little help from the Yanks) holding out against the Luftwaffe. Only now the object of resistance is Germany’s glum Frau Merkel.

Or so the Tories see it. Since Cameron’s “No,” there’s been much chatter about the return of Britain’s “bulldog spirit.” Self-delusion is a lingering attribute of former imperial nations adjusting to a lesser reality. In fact Cameron, playing the wrong chips without partners or preparation, was not so much opposed on grand principle as eyeing an opportunity to extract concessions for the very City of London financial institutions seen as the villains of the 2008 meltdown and its dire aftermath.

(More here.)