USE just doesn't have the same ring to it

United States of Europe, USE for short, something which with any luck will occur in the next few years. Churchill had the right idea, we need to join together with our European brethren. This needs to happen not just in the face of the economic collapse but because of the lack care individuals have shown towards their own states.

I don't trust politicians. From personal experience I have found them to be liars, swindlers and beggars. My lack of trust for politicians is only dimmed by the lack of trust I have in the people that vote them in. Typically in Ireland we have cycles of governments. We have Fianna Fail in coalition with some minor party that will eventually be absorbed into their partner at some point in the future or disappear completely like the Green Party. On the other side of the coin we have the Fine Gael and Labour coalition with whom the media seemed happy to poster as the saviours of the economy only to find themselves only days from the budget removing sections regarding disability allowances. (The fact that in Ireland a Labour party would put together a budget with that many cuts surely indicates the champagne socialist nature of the higher end political organisation.) In Ireland we've a lack of choice but this comes not from the failure of the political spectrum to evolve but of the conservative nature of our people.

We don't like change here in Ireland. Topics such as contraception, divorce and abortion are still considered important in ethical debates and yet we've yet to see an abortion referendum. We don't like Europe, because somewhere along the way a ratty Sinn Fein politician has convinced us that someone dying in 1916 has meant that anything we agree to in Europe is tantamount to treasonous. Oh no, far be it from us to give up our government to be represented by Germans and French, it's not like their politicians aren't doing a good enough job in their own countries. We're happy to moan about the EU but what keeps our farmers going? Who pays for our roads? Who was happy to bail us out?

I believe we could all do with a dose of humility. Ireland may not be as bad as their painting it in the media but it's still in a bit of a rough spot. A single European economy built around the German and French economy would be far superior to what we have now. A single European state is the dream. A state where all cultures are equal, where spending is allocated from the top and ruthless efficiency will route out the problems within our civil service.

Sovereignty is a word that's thrown around a lot but being honest I don't care for being Irish if it means that I'm governed by idiots. I'd rather move somewhere else and take up that nationality. So long as people are safe and secure, does it really matter who's in charge? At the end of the day we can always kick up a stink and leave if it becomes a problem. But this is Ireland and we don't like change.

USE: if nothing else, at least Irish people would have someone else to have a good moan about.