Banking Mad: We're Europeans Whether We Like It Or Not

Some time back in the nineties, I think it was 1995, I was invited to meet a founder of an organisation that was to be some sort of lobby group for European integration. He was looking for someone to be its director of communications. We met in a London club, and I suppose I poured out my good "European" credentials.

I never heard again from him and nor did I ever hear more of the organisation. Perhaps it was all a pipe dream, like much of the European "project" - as it is turning out.

You can get things wrong. You are permitted to change your mind. Even in the mid-90s when the project seemed as exciting as it was, there was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind. How was it all supposed to work?

Around the same time, I met Gerry Malone, the former Conservative MP. It was to discuss a publication in which he had an interest along with Andrew Neil. Once more nothing came of it, but perhaps because of bigger fish to fry - Neil became editor of "The European" and Malone went on to succeed him before the newspaper (by then in magazine format) folded at the end of 1998.

Wind forward to around 2005, and I am inventing the idea of a story that has yet to be written but which is threatening to be played out. The story's premise was the descent of Europe into war, not a military war but an economic war, the background being the collapse of the economic system. I claim no foresight, it just seemed like a good and imaginary apocalyptic vision to provide the context for a story.

All these things were coming to mind as I listened to Andrew Neil giving Ken Clarke the run around on radio the other evening. Clarke was that rare beast, a Conservative beast of a politician for whom I have had any time. Was. He has come to sound like a parody of himself, not just in how he speaks but also what he speaks. The sheer arrogant insouciance was staggering. At one point, as Ken droned on, I'm sure I detected the sound of someone sarcastically snoring, and it presumably wasn't the presenter John Pienaar.

This was a discussion about the state of the Euro, the EU and Ireland and its descent into what is now also political turmoil. It's not an issue about the Euro, so Clarke was saying, but one of out-of-control bankers. Right but also wrong as the Euro was and is the currency.

Sitting in Spain listening to this, you know full well what's coming next. The fire storm is heading southwards. Perhaps. The Spanish economy slipping back again, more austerity measures to be handed out in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable. Zapatero might yet face his own early elections when the flames start to encroach upon Madrid's city limits.

You are permitted to admit that you were wrong, to admit that you were sold a pup. Or this at least is how the "project" is panning out: the with-hindsight pretentious notion of being "Europeans", an entirely specious concept that sought to graft a nationhood onto enduring diversity. Why did "The European" fail? Apart from the original idea of the highly pro-European Robert Maxwell being "barking mad" according to Gerry Malone, it was because it was - as has been said elsewhere - a paper for a nation which didn't exist; which doesn't exist and is never likely to exist.

The flaws with the Euro are not for me to go into, but fundamentally a currency unsupported by a harmonised political structure and harmonised institutions and financial and fiscal policies was always going to be a tough call. It was a massive experiment which may now be unravelling along with the political conceit that brought it about but at the same time the laudable political motives behind integration. What was created in order to overcome division is generating it - economic war but also sociopolitical war, one predicated on migration that has inflamed old prejudices and, more seriously, precisely the extremism that it was meant to stamp out.

We know the arguments in favour. Of course we do. Don't we? And one is to avoid economic war, which is why Ireland will not be allowed to go to the wall, which is only right. But how often can this be repeated and remain politically acceptable if other countries are to be bailed out? Who next? Well, we know who next. Or at least we think we do. An unsettling idea is that one can sit in Spain and listen to Andrew Neil versus Ken Clarke, be uncomfortable with views that have shifted a considerable distance from the days of a meeting in a London club and be further uncomfortable with the ease of movement that brought one to be sitting in Spain. It's simply not good enough to rail against the Euro and the European Union, because to do so would be hypocritical.

But, but, but ... . The dire predictions regarding Spain may not be accurate. For starters, the Spanish banking system is not in the same mess as Ireland's. This stems from much tighter regulation on lending and the insistence on banks' securing debts laid down by the Bank of Spain. Yes, there has been much cash flowing into what are now all but worthless property development and speculation, but the level of lending is not at Irish levels.

So maybe Ken Clarke is right. It isn't about the Euro, but just about banks. Perhaps so, but sentiment goes a long way, and the sentiment against the Euro and countries perceived as weak within the monetary system goes as far, which is why worries about Spain will remain and why the Euro and the whole European project will attract such anxiety.

But hold on, what would be the alternative? Something potentially altogether worse. To borrow from an Irishman, things may be falling apart, the centre may not be holding, but I, for one, hope to God it does hold. We are Europeans whether we like it or not.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.