It’s crunch time in Europe as Greece finally declares that it’s had enough of being dictated to
Freedom is described in some dictionaries as ‘the absence of subjection to foreign domination or a despotic government’ or ‘the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity’.
Reading these two descriptions, it’s hard to deny that membership of the European Union definitely removes quite a few freedoms from member states. Does it matter that politicians actually agreed to give up certain aspects of sovereignty? Indeed, can a politician even agree to dilute freedoms if the ramifications haven’t been properly explained to the people whose freedoms are being taken away?
I’d argue that no one is entitled to give away the sovereignty of an entire nation if they don’t have at least a two-thirds agreement of the population. Even then, I’d still be concerned that one third of the population were having freedoms removed by the tyranny of the majority. Freedoms that are hard won are almost impossible to win back once given away.
Such a situation has now become clear to the people of Greece. This week their banks are closed, access to their savings is restricted and they do not know if their pensions or salaries will be paid next month. The country has the feet of the EU, IMF and World Bank on its windpipe.
Of course, it’s clear that the politicians and oligarchs that run Greece had conspired in a massive exercise of tax evasion and election bribery to persuade a nation that was terribly poor and had little or no experience of easy credit, to enter the Euro. Is it any wonder that once the country had been accepted into the
Eurozone that the entire population would go on a credit bender with all the energy of Oliver Reed in a vodka distillery?
Now that the bills have come in, many people living in Greece are confused because the ramifications of the surrender of their sovereignty that was required for them to join the Euro were never adequately explained. As a result, the usual parties, that have treated Greece as their own personal fiefdom since 1947, were ousted and replaced by an assortment of communists and right-wing extremists. The people of Greece chose to reject the previous government that had bound them into a very bad situation.
Like it or not, that is the nature of democracy. The people’s will is paramount. In this situation, however, the democratic will of the people is being usurped by external organisations. Unelected and unaccountable bodies are trying to override the wishes of a democratic country. In former times this would be a classic recipe for war, but in this instance neither side has an army capable of exerting its will. Greece no longer wants, nor can it endure the austerity that the financial organisations are asking it to bear, and yet those organisations don’t have tanks to enforce their will.
The only solution to this situation must be to let Greece exit the Euro and return to the Drachma. Those in the EU who happily ignored the fudged figures Greece presented to qualify for the Euro, mainly because it was politically expedient to push the EU Project forward to its next phase, bear as much responsibility for this debacle as the corrupt politicians and oligarchs that have ruled Greece for so long.
Journalist, photographer and broadcaster. Tech writer @Forbes. Presenter of C4’s Dispatches: ‘Truth About Hospital Food’. Author of ‘Notes From A Hospital Bed’. Mark uses Twitter to debate and discuss issues at @markgsparrow.
Is it time to embrace Greeks bearing gifts?
by Mark Sparrow
© Mark Sparrow 2015