Someone called José Manuel Barroso a great stand-up comic. He has only to come to the microphone, open his mouth and a belly laugh runs through Europe. True, as the president of the European Commission he’s only one among others appointed to impersonate a president, all of them Great Men by tacit agreement among themselves. In Mexico recently he did a splendid turn about having nothing to learn from the United States. Now he excels himself by telling the British that they have an international role but it depends on staying in the EU. What a jolly paradox! And if they leave the EU then Britain will be like Norway and Switzerland. Groucho Marx couldn’t have put it better.
Norway and Switzerland indeed! The former has the second highest GDP in the world, the latter the fourth highest. Offered the choice between being another Norway or Switzerland, and continuing under the thumb of Great Men like Barroso, pretty well every British voter will opt out of the EU. The return of sovereignty is coming anyhow, as the alternative is unemployment currently at 11 percent in the EU, riots and bloodshed, and poverty at Third World levels because there isn’t the money to bail out the culture of entitlement. The death throes are unpleasant, but at least we have Barroso to distract us.