'The sick man of Europe' is a term that has been used to describe, among others,

the late Ottoman Empire and Britain in the 1970s (incidentally during Labour's
last tenure of government).
I would say this term is no longer relevant - Europe is itself the sick man. In
the last six months we have seen strikes and riots rock the continent as the EU'
s rigid economic system struggles to cope with the financial crisis; we have see
n a quangocrat and a 'low grade bank clerk' elected by nobody to represent us; a
nd democracy trampled on in another Brussels power-grab.
We have to ask ourselves how much longer we wish to share membership of an organ
isation which has, on one extreme, a socialist government that has handled its f
inances so poorly that it is on the verge of bankruptcy; and on the other a corr
upt billionaire plutocrat who, apart from owning large swathes of his country's
media, has made himself essentially immune from prosecution while conniving with
his equally repulsive counterpart and friend in Moscow to persecute the family
of Alexander Litvinenko.
Thankfully David Cameron, Václav Claus and MichaŠKamiŠski already asked themselv
es this question, taking the courageous decision to form the European Conservati
ves & Reformists Group.
It would be interesting to see how bad things really have to get before any of t
hese men wholeheartedly put their weight behind outright secession.
In the case of Italy the 'European pattern' is disturbingly familiar. The Prime
Minister can now legitimately claim he is too busy to attend court hearings in w
hich he is being prosecuted, making him effectively above the law. This is remar
kable because the Italian legislature actually handed him this immunity on a pla
te.
The parallel with the Roman Senate sycophantically ceding more and more of its p
ower to the caesars is disturbing, but accurate. As President, the Communist Gio
rgio Napolitano ought to step in, but has so far done nothing. Those monarchists
who claim the Queen would refuse to ratify any undemocratic or unconstitutional
legislation would do well to learn from this - Napolitano's role is essentially
the same and just as toothless.
Berlusconi's flagrant abuse of his position highlights the weakness of the Europ
ean Union but also its own superficial commitment to democracy. A body which for
ced the Irish to reconsider their decision on the Lisbon Treaty is unlikely to m
ake its voice heard over the collapse of the rule of law in Italy. The concept h
as simply never gained any currency in Europe.
Though, harrowing as Italy's situation is (Tatiana Litvinenko's "I thought Europ
e had 100% rule of law" ought to be invoked at every session of the European Par
liament), it is Greece that runs the risk of seriously destabilising the contine
nt. The question over whether to bail out the country with taxpayers' money has
already caused conflict between member states and resentment among their elector
ates.
Of all publications, it was the Independent that ran a piece on why the euro was
to blame for the strikes that exploded over Greece and Europe earlier this year
. The following paragraph, a stinging indictment of the single currency, is wort
h printing here in full (my emphasis);
During the relatively benign economic conditions that marked the first decade of
the euro, fast growing economies such as Spain were able to enjoy the advantage
s of currency union, such as low interest rates, but allowed their prices and co
sts to gradually rise, leaving their economies uncompetitive by comparison with
nations such as Germany. Traditionally, that cumulative build-up of cost and pri
ce differences would be dealt with by devaluation of the currency, but membershi
p of the euro removes that flexibility. Thus Ireland, Greece , Spain and others
are undergoing what economists euphemistically call "internal devaluation", slas
hing wages and costs and, if necessary, allowing unemployment to climb to record
highs. The problem raised by the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
among others, is that those deflationary polices threaten to shrink their econom
ies even more, triggering an even more urgent budget crisis as tax revenues coll
apse and unemployment payments rise.
I couldn't have put it better myself. Though perhaps more ominous was: "The demo
cratic strains in nations that had been ruled, well within living memory, by fas
cist leaders or the military are growing."
It appears that the Federalists have learnt nothing from the Balkan conflict. Th
e horrors of war and genocide in the former Yugoslavia ought to have taught the
world, and especially Europe, that forcing people even as ethnically similar as
the South Slavs into one political entity serves only to exasperate the differen
ces between them.
It is one of those bizarre twists of history that a people who fought so bloodil
y to tear the Yugoslav union apart should be striving so hard to join a new one
in from Brussels. The Yugoslav wars have shown us that multiethnic unions withou
t dictatorial lynchpins like Tito make nationalism and ethnic conflict more, not
less, likely.
So it is with great sadness that I receive the Liberal MEP and former Belgian Pr
ime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's announcement that "The ultimate consequences of i
dentity politics are the gas chambers of Auschwitz" (thanks to Dan Hannan for dr
awing attention to this). More still to hear that this Nazi analogy is frequentl
y thrown at eurosceptics in Brussels.
The sad thing is the Federalists really cannot see what they are doing. In bindi
ng nations with very different economies into a single currency with single inte
rest rates they are manufacturing financial collapse and industrial unrest - fer
tile soil for for nationalism and extremism to grow.
Worse still, their efforts to redress the problem are fermenting resentment betw
een member states and their electors - who they have already shown their contemp
t for by their shameful dismissal of Lisbon referendums.
I know I will be mocked for predicting the EU causing the next European war and
honestly, I pray that I'm wrong. But Britons should bear in mind that where, in
the past, we have always had the option of staying out of such conflicts, we are
now directly involved. Right at the heart of Europe, as Tony Blair used to say.