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From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Editorials

Date: April, 2012

By: Editorial

"Something not far from malice"

John Bruton, the West Brit of long standing, who had a portrait of John Redmond in his office when he was Taoiseach, has been shocked by a sudden realisation of what Britain is. In an outburst at a meeting of the Ireland/Canada Business Association on 8th March he declared that Britain was motivated by "something not far from malice" in its recent handling of the Fiscal Compact development within the EU.
Bruton's attack was disowned for the Coalition by Joe Costello of the Labour Party. It would have been unpleasant for the present Fine Gael Taoiseach to have to repudiate a statement by the much-admired, and notoriously Anglo-phile, last Fine Gael Taoiseach.
Costello, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said:

"I don't think there is anything approaching malice in Britain's decision in relation to the fiscal compact. Immediately following the British decision, the Irish government made a friendly approach to the British government, and it made that approach because it sees Britain as an ally".

And he pointed out that Britain had made a £7 billion loan available to Ireland in the banking crisis of 2010.
That loan was, of course, an investment. Its motive was profit. The interest rate was 5.8%. However when Ireland negotiated a lower interest rate on European loans, the price of the British loan was reduced accordingly. And the British terms included the condition that, if Ireland did not actually avail of the money made available to it, it would have to pay a hefty fine.

Britain is well practised at applying the language of altruism to strictly commercial transactions. People from radically different cultures sometimes find it puzzling that one says "Thank you" on receiving a commodity for which one has paid, in a transaction which it is the vendor who profits, as if one had received a gift. But that is the custom. And, though it may be a pleasant custom, it is important not to forget that it is a mere gloss on "the nexus of callous cash payment"—a form of social connection pioneered in England, about which England never deceives itself.
England made a sound investment in the Irish banking crisis. And, if it had proved to be unsound, it would have been worth a few billion to it politically to have Ireland in hock to it.

Bruton's outburst came a few days before a meeting between Kenny and Cameron in London, at which arrangements were made to begin a process of merging the two civil services. And why not? RTE is already little more than an echo of the BBC. And increasingly the Irish State appears to itself to be something left over from the actions of a previous generation whose motives, purposes, morale, and national will now appear alien and incomprehensible. It exists, but it knows not why. What separate business does it have in the world now?

Well, it has the Fiscal Compact, though it wishes that it hadn't. The mere fact of separate existence has, through the accidents of international affairs, during the past generation led to further degrees of separation from Britain, even while the separatist will has been withering. Regret or ridicule 1916 as much as you please—they produced something actual in the structure of the world. Garret FitzGerald, another Anglophile Fine Gael Taoiseach, was very much struck by that fact towards the end of his life.

John Bruton is a typical Irish Brit, in that he hasn't a clue about Britain. He soaked up the sentiment which Britain exudes from its elaborate facade and so he is shocked when he is confronted with a piece of the reality behind it.
In 1910 an American Ambassador had a friendly discussion with Arthur Balfour, former Prime Minister (who had enacted the most comprehensive social reform there has ever been in Ireland) and future wartime Foreign Secretary. Balfour—an urbane, civilised, philosophical politician—mentioned that it would probably be necessary to make war on Germany in order to maintain the British commercial position in the world. The American was shocked. But, if Britain had been incapable of imagining such projects, and carrying them out, it would not be what it is—and the world would not be what it is.
America has come on a lot since then. It now does what Britain did then. But Britain has still not given up the Imperial ghost—it would be very difficult for it to do so because it still lives by the exploitation of the world established by the Empire. The Fiscal Pact is therefore very dangerous to it, and there is nothing it will not do to ward off that danger.

The British action that disillusioned Bruton came at the end of decades of effective British subversion of the EU from within, some of it done while Bruton himself was a functionary of the EU. He did not notice it because he was starry-eyed.

The European development, as conceived and implemented in the period of De Gaulle and Adenauer, was incompatible with Britain's relationship with the world. Its applications for membership were therefore vetoed by De Gaulle. But eventually Britain got in, and it set about changing the EU into a mere market for its goods and services, with the emphasis on financial services. It was its success that led to the banking crisis from which Ireland is trying to extricate itself.
Germany, being called on to bail out all the financial crises that resulted from changing the EU from the Christian Democratic model to the British, finally asserted itself as a European political presence—the first time it has done so since the Adenauer era. It undertook to keep the Eurozone functional. It was actively supported by France. The other Euro States could not but agree, including Ireland—which would have preferred not to, but which had got itself separated from Britain through not following promptly enough the zig-zags of British policy. And the EU States which were not Euro States supported the German/French departure because they were European.
The EU as a functional structure was already defunct by this time. All Britain did was to refuse to let its hulk be used as a cover for the new departure.

Bruton's complaint is that Britain might have let the EU facade be used for the Eurozone development and demanded an 'opt-out' for itself.
Britain obviously concluded that its long series of 'opt-outs' had served their purpose of disembowelling the EU and that it was best not to let British prestige be used in support of the Eurozone development. The Eurozone must sink or swim by its own efforts, and it is not in Britain's interest to help it to swim.
If it breaks up, that will cause Britain both difficulties and opportunities. Britain is prepared for this. A settled world is not its ideal, or its expectation, and is not in its interest.

Contents

Editorial I p. 2

Editorial II p. 4

‘NGO’: The Guise of Innocence Jenny O’ Connor p. 5

Iran is not Trying to Develop a Nuclear Weapon,
says US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta David Morrison p. 8

A Case of déjà vu - England and France, 1851-1859 and England and Germany
1907-1910 Eamon Dyas p. 10

The Labour Government: 1964 to 1970 John Martin p. 13

Russia’s Great War? Pat Walsh p. 16

Cold Blood/Warm Blood Wilson John Haire p. 26

Toulouse and French Foreign Policy Cathy Winch p. 27

The Enigma of Frank Ryan - Part One Manus O’Riordan p. 28

Documents

Kenny and Cameron Meeting 12 March 2012 p. 32

Wikileaks Revelations p.36

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"Something not far from malice"

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"Something not far from malice"

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