It is not often one can link directly the economic and political incompetence of Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels to the cause of an ubiquitous symbol of the UK's economic decline. And we can prove cause and effect in a period spanning less than two decades. Yes, that is all it took for Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels to put the final nail in the coffin of the European Project even though many do not realise that yet.
What is stupid and what I endeavour not merely to explain but to prove here is the idea anyone in the UK is better off rejoining the single market or the customs union. There are true believers like Ed Davey and the LibDems who want to rejoin the Customs Union, or by seeking closer economic and political cooperation like Starmer and the Left along with the Greens and various other shades of Ridiculous Rooked Remoaners and Rejoiners.
Naturally these are my opinions and I am sure the crazies, the dims, the sillies and the ridiculous will all dispute I am right. Let them. They are in my view condemned already so nothing they have to say can save them.
Potholed roads are everywhere in the UK, causing damage to vehicles and cost and misery to countless working Brits. Brits who are just trying to get to and from work in the morning and evening. Brits trying to earn an-ever-diminishing-in-value pay packet to stretch to cover each month's ever increasing domestic outgoings: accommodation, food, clothes, gas and electricity, transport, clothes, household appliances, consumables like toilet roll, bin bags and the like.
So they deserve to know who bears primary responsibility for this and why.
And when I write 'Brits' I especially mean everyone settled and integrated into GB and NI who either consider themselves to be British with shared values or who have broadly shared values from wherever they originate as first or other generation. The UK is a union built on decades of migration with large numbers of people of all creeds and skin colours who originate from and with ties worldwide.
The Rant
Before I get to the meat of the point I make here, bear with me for one of my traditional rants. Letting off steam is sometimes necessary and cathartic.
The sooner our friends on the EU mainland - the ordinary hard working people of Europe - realise the intelligence of one too many of those in control populating the EU's corridors of power seem from their performance over decades to be far too limited and not up to muster - the better.
All it took recently was JD Vance`s Speech to the Munich Security Conference and les Messieurs Bonquères de Bruxelles were described as transformed to headless chickens running in circles.
Why?
Because under their mismanagement they have reduced Europe to a state of being unable to defend itself. And it is all for the same reason they are the cause of the UK's potholed roads of today, along with our inability in the UK to defend ourselves without the USA.
Vance told them with justification all to pay their own way for their defence and stop leaning on the USA every time there is a problem in Europe.
Why Are Our Roads Full of Potholes
Sadly, it is because our local councils cannot afford to fill them.
But why is that so and how has it come to be?
The primary reason is the UK's membership of the European Union coupled with Remainers and Remoaners who followed the dictats of the EU's les Messieurs Bonquères de Bruxelles without question in the true style of useful idiots.
I wrote about the spectacular calamitous dire historic annual economic growth of the EU in "The EU - A GDP Graveyard - Proved by 40 Years of IMF Statistics" and in 'The European Project is Making People Poorer'.
I wanted to prove still more. I wanted to show that it was not the Brexiteers, the Leavers who are the ones who were bonkers but what I consider the true acolytes of crazy: Ed Davey and the LibDems to a man, woman and LGBTQ+++I they/them; Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay leaders of the Greens; Sir Keir Starmer and the Left; and in general all of what I consider to be the Ridiculous Rooked Remoaners and Rejoiners.
Yes I know. It is not the best approach to label those one considers to be bonkers as bonkers but sometimes one has to let off steam and call them all out for what I believe them to be: totally lacking in any analytical ability to identify the causes of the UK's woes.
Ridicule the Ridiculers
It is their turn to be ridiculed and demeaned for their spectacular lack of ability to understand economic and political truths and the primary cause of the most serious of the UK's financial problems of today.
Margaret Thatcher was many things but stupid was not one of them. It was les Messieurs Bonquères de Bruxelles and not Right ideology which turned her from a European enthusiast to a cynical EU sceptic in a handful of years' experience of having to deal with Monsieur Bonkers.
The EU project is also by constitution just plain dangerous and a threat to Western democracy. We have 85 years of World Bank Group economic statistics to prove it is an economic disaster for us in the UK.
But look at everyone who chose to ignore that.
And now we have even more - the reason why we cannot afford to fill the potholes in our roads.
So What is My Point
I fell over on the Web a blog by an Oxford economist. He is not a political activist. His passion is competitive sport: cycling. One of his goals in life is to help those of us who want to understand economics. To this end he has provided essays, e-books and articles on the latest developments on the UK and global economy.
It was one of his articles which addressed precisely and contained the information needed with an analysis entitled "Europe's Economic Decline – How the EU fell behind US" 28 November 2023 Tejvan Pettinger".
The first point Pettinger makes by reference to the following World Bank Group data is that the US economy is booming while Europe struggles to avoid recession. By 2023 the EU fell to 65% the size of the US economy when only 17 years earlier it was at 90%. The EU looks to be overtaken by China and India in terms of its share of World GDP and the Euro has fallen 33%.
This disaster was made in Brussels by les Messieurs Bonquères de Bruxelles.
A Dramatic Decline in Just 17 Years
Before looking at the figures and explanations, ignore all attempts as analysing why this decline in this short time has occurred. It is just too fast and too big a difference to avoid asking, how could this have happened in a Union designed and intended for economic and political union.
Why has the European Union failed to prevent this? Why has the European Union failed the citizens of all the EU member states so dramatically. How could such a powerful economic group suffer such a decline in such a short period compared to international competitors?
What caused this? Who caused this? How did they do it?
Austerity
Pettinger identifies austerity as the primary factor in this rapid decline.
He writes:
"..... the Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman argues one of the biggest barriers to economic growth in Europe has been an obsession with reducing debt, especially in Germany. Since the Euro debt crisis of 2010, the EU has prioritised trying to reduce fiscal deficits, leading to weak economic growth. But, an unfortunate consequence of austerity has been a failure to reduce debt to GDP anyway. Italy's debt has soared despite efforts to reduce borrowing. This is because slower economic growth leads to lower tax revenue, which leads to rising budget deficits, which leads to more pressure for austerity. Europe has been stuck in a cycle of low growth, low confidence and austerity. Italy is symbolic of Europe's economic stagnation – with one of the worst wage growth rates in the developed world. Austerity is not the only cause of Italy's woes, but it has hardly helped, and the recent rise in interest rates is particularly bad timing for all of Europe."
Proof Not Arguments
What Pettinger's article does inadvertently is not merely explain why we cannot fill the potholes in our roads and why the UK and the EU cannot defend themselves. Pettinger points out the proof.
The UK is desperately short of money because of the EU policy of austerity which EU member states, including the UK, followed slavishly.
President Barak Obama warned against this but to no avail. Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels was having none of it. Worse still the devoted disciples of discipline to his diktats followed this slavishly. Two of them were UK Prime Minister "Call me Dave" Cameron and UK Chancellor George Osborne. History shows now in hindsight both look far worse than merely ridiculous. How could anyone not realise what the outcome would be of such recklessness based on blind adherence to a quasi-religious belief in a political project lacking sound practical or theoretical foundations. .
So let us revisit economist Paul Krugman's words:
".... slower economic growth leads to lower tax revenue, which leads to rising budget deficits, which leads to more pressure for austerity. Europe has been stuck in a cycle of low growth, low confidence and austerity."
This is why we cannot afford to fill the potholes in our roads.
How Big is the Problem?
Let us put some numbers to this. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government had increased borrowing to £900+ billions from a very low figure of a few millions - before Prime Minister Tony Blair took control in May 1997 from the Conservatives. National debt was nowhere near billions back then. It was a tiny number of millions by comparison.
So what did UK Prime Minister "Call Me Dave" Cameron and George Osborne achieve?
Instead of eliminating debt, borrowing became astronomic and continued throughout 14 years of Conservative government. The annual average borrowing was £128 billions so that national debt reached £2.7 trillion and it has been increasing ever since.
What is particularly infuriating about this is the LibDems, who had been in coalition with "Call Me Dave" and Osborne not only went along with it, they did nothing to complain loudly throughout the rest of the 14 years of Conservative govenment after the coalition ended.
And as for the official opposition - Labour - they could not be heard complaining too much about this either.
It could be because none of the parties in opposition wanted to scream too loudly in case they had to do the same if they gained power.
So that boys and girls is why we cannot afford to fill in the pot holes.
And this does not rely on argument that it is the fault of Brussels and those who wanted us to stay in the EU. This is based on proof. Incontrovertible fact.
So if you want to rejoin the EU, kiss goodbye to a better life - forever.
You never know, we might get lucky and have the Chinese take over Europe if President Putin does not beat them to it.
Another article will address why the EU adopted a policy of Austerity in the first place. You may be extremely angered by what you may learn from it.
