Castle of lies

For A Change, Dec-Jan, 2000

Most of us instinctively recoil from strong debates on controversial issues. In my state of adoption, Minnesota, USA, we call this human tendency `Minnesota nice', (although it does not seem to afflict our outspoken governor Jesse Ventura). In my state of birth, Vaud, Switzerland, we joke that the Vaudois' response to tough questions is: `I am neither for nor against it, quite the opposite!'

American essayist and ethicist Carol Bly reminds us that strong disagreements are not only unavoidable, but could make life worth living. In a humorous essay entitled Enemy Evenings, Bly recommends that controversial issues be discussed by panels of strongly opposed participants, with a `master of ceremonies with general affection for human beings, not a chill manner or a childish desire to get the fur flying'. She argues that such evenings not only cut through the boredom and loneliness which avoidance of important issues generates, but even make for `the kind of friendship people enjoy who deliberately, curiously, and civilly draw out one another's views on serious subjects'.

As I have pondered the political and ethical meaning of European integration for my doctoral dissertation, I have at times used `enemy reading lists' to broaden my circle of fellow thinkers and challenge my own preconceived notions. The latest includes The Castle of Lies by Christopher Booker and Richard North (Gerald Duckworth and Co, London, 1996) and The Rebirth of Europe by Elizabeth Pond (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1999).

In some ways the authors are writing past one another. Pond, an American journalist who has lived for many years in Germany, looks at the big picture, marvelling at the European `chain of reconciliation'. She lists four `miracles': first, the postwar Franco-German rapprochement; second, the rejuvenation in the 1980s which meant that German reunification was `embedded in a larger European framework rather than bursting that framework'; third, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire without bloodshed in 1989; and fourth, the `new energy on the continent' to build a prosperous and peaceful European Union (EU). British journalists Christopher Booker and Richard North remind their readers that the devil is in the detail. Far from looking at the big picture, they relentlessly document the infringements of freedom and common sense caused by countless EU regulations, building a strong case for Britain `getting out' of Europe.

Pond's ambitious overview covers the successful launching of the European Monetary Union (EMU), the process of enlargement to Eastern and Central Europe, the relationship between the EU and the US, and NATO's evolution. She argues that the desire to join both the EU and NATO has prodded the `Western Slavs'--Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Baltic countries--into settling border disputes, establishing solid democracies and adopting market economies.

In spite of the doomsday predictions of American economists, by 1998 11 countries had qualified to join the EMU, fulfilling the economic criteria with a `minimum of creative accounting'. Because the highest benchmark became the common denominator, this process forced Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece to reform their economies. Pond also argues that the EC boosted the self-confidence of the Republic of Ireland by providing an alternative orientation to England--and that this enabled it to sign the 1998 peace settlement.

Pond calls the relationship between the EU and the US a `delicate game of coopetition' (mix of interdependence and rivalry). The US is the dominant partner in the defence area, but the EU gives far more in humanitarian aid. She urges the US and the EU to live up to `the grace of miracles' granted by history in spite of their differences.

Booker's and North's The Castle of Lies is an invitation to understand the `system', a `horrifying' bureaucratic entanglement of Whitehall and Brussels which has affected British lives and many businesses for the worse. The authors report countless cases of nonsensensical EU regulations, too often made more intrusive by British bureaucrats who dislike admitting or correcting any mistakes.

They cite the 3,000 older lorry drivers threatened with the loss of their jobs when a new EC directive required them to pass their driving test without glasses or contact lenses, on the grounds that their glasses might fall off in a collision. Meanwhile, on the continent, older drivers with comparable eyesight continued to drive thanks to the system of `grandfather rights' abolished by British administrators. At times even regulations or directives not on the books are invoked: a pub in Surrey renamed its Yorkshire puddings `yorkies', having mistakenly been told by a trading standards official that it was a criminal offence to call something a Yorkshire pudding which had not actually been made in Yorkshire.

Other chapters describe more notorious abuses such as those due to the Common Fisheries Policy, which Spain cleverly turned to its advantage forcing thousands of British fishermen out of work. The authors also criticize the Common Agricultural Policy which succeeded in making Europe self-sufficient in food production, but increased the prices for consumers and caused serious overproduction. Metrication is another problem; so is the VAT tax system, and, of course, the BSE beef crisis `which was spun out of nothing'.