As the eurozone spins out of control and Britain considers leaving the European Union, this is a good time to recall some of the debates that led up to the current mess. Here’s Margaret Thatcher being extraordinarily prescient about the common currency and European integration.
It’s safe to say that many in Britain are glad that Thatcher and her intellectual successors opposed “a federal Europe” — and that a growing number of Italians, Greeks and Spaniards wish they’d had Thatchers of their own.
8 thoughts on "Classic Video: Margaret Thatcher On The Euro And “Federal Europe” In 1990"
“…a growing number of Italians, Greeks, and Spaniards wish they’d had Thatchers of their own.”
Thatcher didn’t argue anything that was unique to the UK. What she argued applied (and still does) to every sovereign nation. The rest of Europeans just didn’t understand that or believe it. I generally think the Europeans deserve what they get but in this case the evil intentions of the EU authorities are so great that I can’t continue to feel so self-righteous.
Hopefully the UK will exit the EU and trigger its unwinding.
The unwinding of the EU would be disastrous for the EU countries. Russia and China will devour the former EU member states economically. Europe, a continent going nowhere. Britain is playing with fire, the EUcountries obsessed with their own national interests are playing with fire. You do not know what you have till you lose it…
“You don’t know what you have until you lose it” works both ways. “Member states” now miss the borders, language and culture that they had, and their sovereignty. Now they have the utopian nightmare of socialism run by unaccountable oligarchs. It’s failure is not their choice (it’s inevitable and occurring as we speak), only the rate at which it fails is their choice.
This! ^