Merging interests of Europe at the Pontignano conference
If you shut your eyes during the debates here in Pontignano you cannot distinguish which nationality the speaker represents.
A generation ago that would not have been true. For a start, fewer of the Italians would have spoken fluent English. Secondly globalization has harmonised much of the discourse.
That said, there is no celebration of the extraordinary creation that, historically, the European Union represents.
Love it or hate it, history has never seen such a cohesive trading union of nation states last so long, let alone with a single currency (minus UK and the merging Easter bloc, though unlike the UK they are in the waiting room).
The concern centres on the extent that Europe as a concept means so little to the average citizen that its doings are dull and its accountability to us apparently also small and dull.
Yet the problems are common – a vast gulf between the rich and poor across Europe, a vast gap between the electorate and the political elite and, in the aftermath of the downing of the Berlin wall, a serious erosion in political engagement of the sort that brought the Union into being.
Key amongst the issues we talked about this morning – immigration, the fears for jobs by the receiving population and fears too of cultural dilution. Yet the reality is that British renewal, for example would have been very severely hampered but for the arrival of young working resource, skilled and unskilled.
Italy has a more fraught relationship with immigration than the UK, though the UK has more. Here, right wing extremists are becoming ever bolder in denouncing immigrants.
The other huge issue is that of the bankers and the crash – the Europe-wide revulsion that monies that should be paying for health care and educational opportunity are being paid out to the very bankers who brought about the crash.
The Barclays development in which 45 of its senior staff have been given money to set up a company in the Caymans to buy up Barclays worst toxic assets – some called it a conjuring trick that was in concert with everything that had led to the crash.
Getting to grips with the bankers is something Europe simply hasn’t done and many pointed to the reality that if Europe doesn’t engage with the issues that exercise the citizenry, how can anyone be persuaded to get excited about it.
The struggle continues. I must go back in. Five hours talking today, three or four yet to come. Get me a drink Miss Moneypenny!
Related posts:
- Pontignano conference continued: after the crash
- Recession messages from Italy remind me of home
- One year on, Lehman Brothers still haunts us
- A spectacle we have never seen before
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The problems aren’t a side-effect of monetary/political union – these are deep intractables.
Please don’t get cosy out there: the EU is a benign monolith, but with that much mass no monolith stays benign for long.
Well done 001 . whilst you are trying to make sense of the ever converging accents and language, the others are worried that dilution MAY happen.
Whilst we in Little Britain are revisiting ‘Casino Royale’ you are observing how the superbrains are going to HEDGE THEIR BETS.
Coffee in a polystyerene cup for you.
Must go to Tuscany one day on my hols.
The fact that the politicians have done nothing about the bankers who caused the crash means either they were lying through their teeth when they condemned them or they are incompetent. Either way they should act or get out.
Today we have Ed Balls willing to cut the number of teachers – what happened to getting state schools to the same teacher/pupil ratio as private?
And Osborne in true Old Etonian fashion is banging on about the possibility of a 3p income tax rise which would raise cash from those earning most (his mates) yet is willing to cut benefits to poor familes.
Then there’s the lib dems, who were not even bright enough to make Vince Cable their leader.
Throw in some right wing little Englanders and the odd raving loony candidate and there is simply no party which deserves our vote,
We need a ‘none of the above’ box so we can truly express our view.
I agree Sam what we have do do as citizens is remove the hype and look at the facts.
As a highly qualified professional I was told that there were not enough of us , so thousands of similar professionals were shipped in from over the waters whilst myself and others like me could not get a job.This was similar in teaching as well.
In fact employers swamped the market with an external workforce and created “make believe” jobs for the few Brits.
What is sad is that if you describe true events, show facts, give evidence ,the “powers that be ” refuse to believe and continue creating chaos.
Is it surprising now that there are great numbers of unemployed and the figures are set to get worse. The agencies who were somewhat clumsily called permanent employers ,in fact are an excuse to demonstrate how those who get 1-2 hours a week are employed.
The question is what would you have contributed to the Pontignano conference .?
What sort of polemic would you think useful whan discussing Hedging funds?
Do you think that the big bank players are motivated by the “world bank” or do you think there is doublethink in operation?
Do you think that the Nations are justified in their concern about National dilution? or do you think the mixing of culture and loss of identity is important?
Philosophy and literature may not be your subject , but expression of realities in multiform ,aids people’s perception and exploration of their own views.
I just wish that it was more democratic. They keep forcing decisions through despite their unpopularity.
Britain, Sweden and Denmark aren’t even in the waiting room