The pending split between Britain and the Continent is a prophecy the Trumpet has made consistently for years—and that Herbert W. Armstrong made for decades before us.

Now, as Germany and European Union leaders grapple with a life-threatening financial crisis, their ruthless measures are intensifying their already gross differences with Britain. Last week, animosity between the two boiled over.

“Germany and the UK are on a collision course,” said Jan Techau, director of the European center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The clashes we see now about deepening ties in the EU have always been there, but the crisis makes them more visible. Now it’s crunch time” ( November 15).

Here’s one contentious example: a Europe-wide tax that Berlin is pushing as a way to raise money to bail out eurozone countries. It would create a surcharge on financial transactions—which means that upwards of 80 percent of the tax revenue would come from the biggest global financial center in Europe, the City of London. Convenient, no?

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne acidly called the tax“ a bullet aimed at the heart of London.” Former Primer Minister John Major branded it “a heat-seeking missile” targeting the British. Prime Minister David Cameron sarcastically criticized the anti-British motives of the tax’s proponents thus: “I am sometimes tempted to ask the French whether they would like a cheese tax.”

Nevertheless, the Eurocrats are sticking to their guns. Last week at Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party conference, parliamentary leader Volker Kauder warned that the UK had better submit to the tax. “I can understand that the British don’t want that when they generate almost 30 percent of their gross domestic product from financial-market business in the City of London,” he said. “But Britain also carries responsibility for making Europe a success. Only being after their own benefit and refusing to contribute is not the message we’re letting the British get away with” (emphasis added throughout).

It’s all plainly designed to force the British into a fight. As the euro crisis deteriorates, European leaders are talking about solving it with more Europe while British leaders want less. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party congress last Monday, “The task of our generation now is to complete the economic and currency union in Europe and, step by step, create a political union.” Meanwhile, the same day, Mr. Cameron said the euro crisis brings an “opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation’s interests … an opportunity, in Britain’s case, for powers to ebb back instead of flow away.” Not exactly a marriage made in heaven.

Mr. Cameron traveled to Berlin last Friday to meet with Mrs. Merkel, but, predictably, the two made no headway toward agreement. One thing their meeting did inspire, though, is a torrent of bitter rhetoric on both sides of the Channel. Reports emerged of German politicians criticizing Britain for being “freeloaders in the eurozone.” The German media roundly slammed the British prime minister. Bild carried the headline “Europe speaks German, Mr. Cameron! What do the English actually want in the European Union?”

It questioned whether it might be better if Britain left the EU altogether. Financial Times Deutschland wrote that Cameron “wants Britain to have a say in the financial crisis, but he doesn’t want his country to have to pay for it. … Great Britain is lacking a constructive approach. That’s why the government in London shouldn’t be surprised that it is hearing an increasing number of European countries sigh words like: Things would be a lot easier if we didn’t have the Brits.”
More... HERE

Return To Index Page