Plagues of the West - creeping government

Thought provoking post at Eurosoc:

Plagues Of The West
The New Ice Age, AIDS, Global Warming, Mad Cow Disease, Millennium Bug, Terrorism, Bio-Terror, Avian Flu, Food Shortages, Petrol Crunch, Credit Crunch. As the news cycle has accelerated, the number of civilisation-threatening Plagues of The West have multiplied accordingly.

A few weeks ago, EURSOC ran a round-up of these crises, pondering how media speculation and government interference combined to cause regular scares. What we didn't ponder, until after a few beers last night, was why this must be.

Every new plague has brought with it more centralisation, more government interference, and now, more Europe.

Energy crisis? So we need a common European policy on fuel. Food shortages? Shows that the Common Agricultural Policy was a great idea, rather than a criminal waste of money all along. Wars in the Middle East? A common defence policy is required. Middle Easterners bringing their wars to our doorsteps? We need a common security policy AND a common immigration policy (the hundreds of thousands of security cameras in Britain are the idea of the UK government... but let's see if the Euros like what they see).

AIDS, BSE, Bird Flu? A common health policy. Flooding / Drought / Heatwave / Freezing (delete as applicable)? A common environmental policy.

And now, the Recession. Of course, to combat that, we need a common economic policy, and, if that doesn't work, or even shows signs of strain as the Eurozone currently exhibits, well then that points to the necessity of a common political policy.

It's a simple enough dialectic, varied only by how dedicatedly "European" certain nations are when the chips are down. Britain tends to obey his master's voice, France pays lips service, while Germany preaches integration while pursuing every man for himself policies like a fat man elbowing women and children out of the way in the race for the lifeboats.

Eurosoc then links to a post by Archbishop Cranmer which examines the "Credit Crunch" in the historical light of the Bird Flu scare of a few years ago and how England dealt with them both. A new blog to read!