A sad reflection.

After the first couple of 'songs' in Eurovision last night those two twits representing Ireland came on and I decided to head down to the pub.

There I met a young man in his twenties who worked for an NGO. A pleasant enough chap, I was interested to hear what his job consisted of. Having given fairly sketchy details he told me that the organisation he really wanted to work for was the EU. When I asked why (and I managed to ask politely and without rolling my eyes) I was informed that it was because it was a wonderful organisation. It transpired that a good deal of funding for his NGO came from our money that is filtered through Brussels and that the EU was one his NGO's 'partner agencies'.

So what, I asked, was the EU's greatest achievement? That was answered immediately, peace in western Europe since the second world war.

What about NATO? Surely the fact that most western European nations were members of that, and it pre-dated the ECM/EEC/EC/EU may have had a bigger part to play than the EU? That and the fact that no country could afford a war anyway? No, it was only the EU.

What about the fact that the organisation has failed to have its accounts signed off for umpteen years and does all it can to keep its own anti-corruption watchdog (OLAF) muzzled? Oh, no, they don't do that. It's all open and transparent. Besides, the accounts are nothing to worry about, it's all very complicated, too complicated for an auditor. Nothing to concern us, the people at the top know what they are doing, they'll make sure it is ok.

What about the court case involving Bernard Connolly, who has been told that it is illegal for him, or anyone else, to make any criticism of the EU, its institutions and its officers? I was making that bit up, apparently. Nothing like that would and could happen, it was a media smear campaign by racist right wingers. No, that didn't happen at all, I must have been mistaken.

Hmmmm, ok. What about the brow beating of the Irish over the constitution/Lisbon treaty? What was that then?

I explained how they just went back to the Irish and pretty much said, vote yes or else. Once again, I was mistaken. No such thing happened.

I explained the concept of a 'post-democratic' age, and what that meant to me. The response to this put the tin lid on it. The people of Europe don't know what is best for them and leading by the people who do know what is best. How can democracy be held to have worked when governments keep changing? It is obvious people keep choosing the wrong ones, because if they didn't, the governments wouldn't change, would they?

I may have called him a bad name as I walked off.

This is a British man in his twenties, completely indoctrinated and incapable of individual thought.

Perhaps it is time to colonise Mars?