Europeans Learning That Whole EU Thing Not So Great

As with any major agreement between many nations, the European Union has fine print that's written by ideologues who may not have all nations best interests at heart:

The peoples of Europe have finally discovered what they signed up to. I do mean "peoples" (plural) because however much political elites may deceive themselves, the populations of the member states of the EU are culturally, historically and economically separate and distinct. And a significant proportion of them are getting very, very angry.

What the strikers at the Lindsey oil refinery (and their brother supporters in Nottinghamshire and Kent) have discovered is the real meaning of the fine print in those treaties, and the significance of those European court judgments whose interpretation they left to EU obsessives: it is now illegal – illegal – for the government of an EU country to put the needs and concerns of its own population first. It would, for example, be against European law to do what Frank Field has sensibly suggested and reintroduce a system of "work permits" for EU nationals who wished to apply for jobs here.

Meanwhile, demonstrators in Paris and the recalcitrant electorate in Germany are waking up to the consequences of what two generations of European ideologues have thrust upon them: the burden not just of their own economic problems but also the obligation to accept the consequences of their neighbours' debts and failures. Each country is true to its own history in the way it expresses its rage: in France, they take to the streets and throw things at the police, in Germany they threaten the stability of the coalition government, and here, we revive the tradition of wildcat strikes.

Europeans and American liberals are all for open borders throughout the world--for instance US leftists would love to see the border between the US and Mexico erased. The problem as described above is that people are at heart nationalistic. They may join together in happy harmony while things are good but when it comes to feeding ones family, all bets are off. We're seeing that in Europe as we speak.

Just as all the nations who signed on to the Kyoto Protocols learned: an idea may sound great in theory but once people actually get involved, the happiness wanes and reality sets in, usually at great cost.

I see some coalitions splintering and some European leaders getting voted out in the near future.