Title: Citizenship in America and Europe: Beyond the Nation-State?
Author: Michael S. Greve and Michael Zoller
Publish Date: 2009
Publisher / Edition: AEI Press, 2009

The collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the political landscape of the West no less profoundly than it did that east of the former Iron Curtain. Long moribund but virulent nationalisms were quickly aroused in the Balkans, as were equally intense tribal rivalries in several of the Soviet Union’s former client states in sub-Saharan Africa. Ensuing civil war and violent conflict led a large exodus of refugees from these troubled regions to seek asylum in the West, along with many economic migrants, whose numbers were swollen by the large international population flows that attended the sudden global expansion of capitalism also triggered by the Soviet Union’s collapse. In Europe’s case, foreign immigration was further augmented by the opportunity the Soviet Union’s collapse presented Germany to reunify and many of the Soviet Union’s former satellite states in East Europe to join the European Union.

Read the rest at the Library of Law and Liberty blog

As youth unemployment rises to record levels, a new Civitas report reveals that British workplaces spend up to a billion pounds a year complying with clumsy equality legislation. The costs put particular strain on public sector organisations, as well as making it more difficult for businesses to create and retain jobs. Furthermore, these policies have made jobs less accessible to disadvantaged, marginal workers.

The Rise of the Equalities Industry, by sociology professor Peter Saunders, examines the operation of Britain’s equality laws and concludes that they are seriously flawed.

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Small Corroding Words, by Jon Gower Davies, is a systematic critique of the philosophy, research and practice of the EHRC. It reveals serious flaws in the EHRC’s ‘triennial review’, How Fair Is Britain?, that was used to demonstrate unfairness in Britain. What the research actually shows are the statistical differences between some groups. This line of thinking entails, for example, taking the fact that men are more likely to die in work-related accidents than women as a sign of unfairness. (pp. 8-9) The EHRC inaccurately blames Britain for differences of this kind.

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Under the EU’s £1 billion inter-regional agenda, Interreg, Brussels is seeking to redraft the map of Europe, forging new regions from discrete areas of land, seemingly at whim. Most recently, in the wake of plans to rebrand the English Channel ‘the Anglo-French pond’, the EU has declared that southern England in fact belongs to a cross-border French region, ‘Arc Manche’.

Originally contrived some years ago, Arc Manche combines the northern French regions, stretching from Calais to Bretagne, with UK Councils in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Devon. Its existence had long relied on informal cooperation across a web of local authorities in each country, however the ‘region’ was granted its own special assembly in 2005. Intended to enhance the visibility of the network, the Arc Manche Assembly includes representatives from both UK local authorities and French councils, and has been led by French Socialist, Alain Le Vern, since its inauguration.

According to its own mission statement, the purpose of the Assembly is to: “promote the Channel area as a specific and a coherent entity for territorial co-operation at European Union level and to gain recognition from the European Institutions.” This is to be achieved by “joint actions and projects”, delivered through partnerships between both sides of the Channel.

That this conglomeration is in no way “a specific and a coherent entity” beyond the fantasies of the Brussels bureaucracy has failed to dampen the EU’s regional ambitions. Unfortunately, it is these very officials who control the funds required to translate this illusion into reality; and they are not afraid to make significant financial commitments, at our expense, to realise their vision.

For example, £7.6 million has been devoted to a ‘cross-Channel’ cycle lane network, due to be completed by 2013. The plan involves a series of trails leading into French ports and then reappearing on the English coastline, as though to eliminate this aquatic divide altogether. In addition, £2 million will go towards a contemporary art project, intended to provide “a series of unique experiences and encounters” and the opportunity for “cultural exchange”. And, in one of its more extraordinary schemes, a circus of clowns will tour the region, at a cost of £5.5 million, with acts including ‘Barricade’, a circus study inspired by the theme of scaling walls…

It may well be that some of the objectives of such projects are entirely laudable, yet this does not justify their pursuit by an obscure EU construction. If there is some value in these plans, they should be justified to taxpayers by institutions that operate with real accountability, and at a regional level that is familiar and meaningful to its residents, whether English or French.

Restructuring the delivery of these programmes would also help to identify, and possibly eliminate, more ominous elements of the current EU scheme. For instance, the cycle lane proposals demand harmonised road markings and signage between the English and French sides, and it is the regional officials who select the art and culture worthy of funding. Moreover, officials have commissioned a ‘transnational emblem’ for Interreg; a “series of concentric circles symbolising the flow of projects and stakeholders” across “so many bridges between territories”. Rigorous promotion of the logo, denounced by one Whitehall aide as “a bid to subvert the St George’s flag and the Union Jack”, is a prerequisite for each of the groups receiving funding from the Assembly.

Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has decried the Arc Manche agenda as an attempt “to wipe England off the map”, pledging to “stop this waste and protect England’s national and local identities from EU empire building”. Yet the regionalisation of Europe is not set to stop at the Channel. Further projects are lurking in the pipeline, such as a links between Western Spain and Portugal and along the Italian coast, and even non-member states Norway, Belarus and Switzerland have been engulfed by this European “vanity project”. As UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, laments: “The Arc Manche is the perfect Euro project. Nobody wants it, nobody called for it and nobody knows what it’s for.”

Without turning this article into a TV review, it is important to stress the effectiveness of mainstream historical programmes. The genre is still perhaps most memorable for offerings such as Simon Schama’s A History of Britain or David Starkey’s Monarchy, with these epics spanning history from the ‘olden olden’ days until now. What is most striking is how these popularly well-known programmes almost always revolve around England, Britain or the UK’s place in the world.

Many claim to have ‘done’ the Normans, studying it at school or having read and heard about 1066. Professor Robert Bartlett’s three episode series of course had to describe the conquest as well, but this was a twenty minute segment of a three hour documentary. (I would hesitatingly suggest this was the least interesting segment of the series.) The strength of the series was in its taking the viewer out of their historical comfort zone by exploring the build-up to and aftermath of the Battle of Hastings, along with detailing how the Normans spread over the Mediterranean world.

The programmes were fascinating as an insight into the Norman treatment of quasi-colonial subjects, which was perhaps harshest in England. However, in Sicily and beyond, the Norman’s multicultural acceptance of ethnically and religiously diverse subjects did, as Bartlett says, give a ‘blueprint’ of a harmonious but diverse society. Muslims, Orthodox and Western Christians lived side-by-side with religious freedom and without the routine persecution found in other contemporary societies. Perhaps we still have something to learn from them.

These dual themes of expansion and acceptance were the real backbone of the BBC series, giving a coherence and depth that sweeping history programs often lack in their attempt to race through the subject. Decolonialism is still rippling worldwide and our own society is not the first to experience the simultaneous pleasures and pains of multiculturalism. Programmes like The Normans that explore topics so close to the themes of our contemporary lives are often the most engaging. They clearly present the relevance of history to us today and justify the airtime given to examining our past.

The importance of television history does not lie in being an explosion of facts and dates to aim at the viewer, but in offering something the viewer can engage with by delving into the human condition. This is what really widens understanding of our past. For example, through the Normans, Bartlett has conveyed that the popular use of the word ‘medieval’ as a byword for ‘primitive’ is wrong. Critics may argue that this style of programme is the stuff of BBC4, but History oversteps narrow definitions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ brow: it is universal in its appeal and relevance.

The Normans has given a good model of how to produce great TV history, combining fact with actual experience through the opinion of contemporary chroniclers. For example, the conditions suffered by those on crusade were bad, but the real experience can only be recreated through first-hand descriptions of tortuous treks to find water. Bartlett’s use of backdrops was similarly effective and his attention to detail, along with relevant voiceovers and music, gave a clear display of the power of television as a medium for historical education. Sure, Bartlett walked and talked like all narrators, but unlike other historians – some now thought of more as TV personalities than academics- the star of the show was always the subject, not the presenter.

One critic described the series as ‘no more than a tarted up Open University lecture’ but if this is what university lectures were really like, you could bet the Bayeux Tapestry that many more students would attend them.