Douglas Carswell's Blog

There's much to be said for cacophony

Greece's Prime Minister has apparently urged European countries to "stop the cacophony and start working in harmony".

Surely, Mr Papandreou, it was harmony that landed Greece in this mess?  A single currency across the EU.  A common interest rate regardless of the needs of the Greek economy.  Unified monetary policy.

Once again we can see that it is attempts to harmonise Europe - to organise a continent of many millions of different people according to some grand design - that is the problem.

Public policy is best forged amidst the clang and clatter of dissonant noises.  Public policy in Europe should not be arranged according to some deliberate "blue print".   

If Europe is to prosper, we need less harmony and more cacophony.

It might sound untidy to Europe’s self appointed conductor class in Brussels.  But that’s what they would have said about the clang and clatter of the industrial revolution, which allowed Europe to rise to economic pre-eminence in the first place.

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