Bill's Comment Page

Andrew Sullivan reveals his true motivation

I have just read the following posting in Andrew Sullivan's blog. It makes clear that, as I have long suspected, his antipathy to the EU and its growth and strengthening is not merely a philosophical dislike, but based on his assessment of the potential consequences for his adopted country. Nothing particularly wrong with that, base self-interest is an important component of any human interaction, but it does mean that I can now factor in this important element to anything that Sullivan writes about the EU in future, and probably about many other topics which exercise him, too:

Sullivan comes clean "NEW EUROPE WINS: The plucky Spanish and Poles stick to their guns and help derail a new constitution for the EU. Good news for the U.S. But the process isn't over. Old Europe will try to put it back together again. Instant analysis: the 25 state EU is unmanageable. It either has to become a far more integrated political and economic unit or it will fracture. Given the fact that even France and Germany cannot abide by the fiscal rules they themselves insisted upon only a few years ago, the chances of a real unraveling are not as low as they once were. Here's hoping."

Of course, in this particular instance, I understand fully the Polish attitude (as I have written in a couple of my recent postings) and consider they have behaved quite correctly in this whole matter, but the difference between me and Sullivan is that I wish the EU and its member-states well; I now have severe doubts that this can be said of him. It is one thing to think that people are embarked on a path which is not in their own best interests and wish, as a friend, to help them see the error of their ways, it is quite another simply to wish them to fail for one's own reasons of self-interest. In this Sullivan is no better than the motives he attributes to the French, probably with some justification in that case I would have to agree.