by Rab Bruce’s Spider

News has leaked out that Margaret Thatcher was opposed to German Reunification. She wasn’t alone in this, but she apparently spoke to Mikhail Gorbachev about it and told him to ignore any public announcements from the West about wanting a unified Germany because official policy was the exact opposite.

You can read full details of this at:

https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/112006

Now, it’s no real surprise that any politician, especially one like Margaret Thatcher, would be prepared to say one thing in public and the exact opposite in private, but her reasons for this particular bit of hypocrisy reveal quite a lot about the British Nationalist mentality which is seeing such a revival at the moment.

Going all the way back to the days of Henry VIII, England’s foreign policy as regards Europe has always been to try to keep the continent divided so that no one nation wielded too much power. Through the centuries, this is what has driven England’s and then the UK’s involvement in many wars and in financing other countries to engage in warfare so as to prevent any nation becoming too strong. This mindset seems to have influenced Mrs Thatcher in her views on Germany since the sole reason for not wanting a united Germany is fear that it would increase the strength of that country.

This fear, as with so much in BritNat thinking, is based on glorified memories of the two World Wars fought last century, and a dread that Germany might harbour future dreams of military conquest.

What this thinking ignores is that Germany is one of the few countries to have learned the lessons of these profound and catastrophic events. A united Germany may well harbour ambitions of domination, but those ambitions are more economic than military. And we have seen that Germany has accepted more refugees from Africa and the Middle east than most other nations, while maintaining a political system which is intended to prevent any one faction gaining too much control. Contrast that with the UK’s paltry response to the refugee crisis and it’s grossly unfair First Past The Post, Two-Party system. The UK’s political system is so undemocratic that we may soon end up with a Prime Minister who is even more Right Wing than Theresa May. That ought to scare everyone, especially as only Tory Party members will have voted for whoever replaces May in a leadership contest. That’s not democracy.

The fact is that Germany has learned to look to the future, while the UK is mired in dreams of past glory and a refusal to update its antiquated systems. Even in such a simple thing as electronic voting in the House of Commons, the UK cannot bring itself to throw off its attachment to ancient tradition, resulting in hours of wasted time as MPs shuffle through the lobbies to register their votes. It is no wonder the UK is becoming a laughing stock.

Another manifestation of this obsession with the past is the UK’s attitude towards Germany. The famous "Don’t mention the war!" sketch from Fawlty Towers was intended to parody this obsession yet is often viewed as somehow reinforcing the UK’s right to view Germany as a perpetual threat to peace. Yet Germany is not selling billions of pounds worth of munitions to Saudi Arabia, nor does it maintain a ludicrously expensive nuclear arsenal, nor is it building aircraft carriers so that it can threaten and bully other countries (if it ever manages to afford to buy any aircraft to go on the carriers).

Recent headlines in the Telegraph about Britain’s "Glorious Victory" in WW2 only serve to confirm that many British Nationalists continue to live in the past. It is those dreams of glory which have resulted in the rise of xenophobia and the madness of Brexit. The EU, which we all recognise is far from perfect, has been cast in the role of villain, but the UK has been unable to employ its usual tactic of divide and conquer because, for all their differences, most EU member nations understand the benefits the EU provides and want to remain a part of it. With its influence nullified because every member nation is afforded votes within the EU, the UK has well and truly taken the huff and is proceeding with what a growing number of people realise is a potentially catastrophic course of action. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

All the revelations about Mrs Thatcher’s views on Germany show is that fear of A strong Europe drives too many political decisions within the UK. We are experiencing the most obvious manifestation of that fear right now. Sadly, given that this view has prevailed in Westminster for centuries, there is probably no cure. All Scotland can do is put the patient in isolation by breaking away and joining the European countries as a normal nation in its own right.