De Gaulle, the EEC and so on
In History on Thursday we were talking about the apogee of De Gaulle's public life - 1967 - when the French exploded their atom bomb, when he pulled France out of the NATO common command structure and sent the American servicemen home, and when he vetoed Britain's entry to the EEC (again?)
I remember the headlines about those things from when I was little. The papers had "Non!" on their front pages, and in a British poll to decide the most evil man of the 20th century, De Gaulle came second - behind Hitler but worse than Stalin!
De Gaulle's vision was, apparently, for a Europe of cooperating sovereign nation-states. In the class discussion ranged onto the old franc, the new franc and the euro. The French feel that they lost out when they went euro. So do the Germans and the Italians. The Spanish feel they lost out, too. "On a tous perdu" said the lecturer (we all lost out).
One student asked why Britain doesn't have the euro.
I remember the headlines about those things from when I was little. The papers had "Non!" on their front pages, and in a British poll to decide the most evil man of the 20th century, De Gaulle came second - behind Hitler but worse than Stalin!
De Gaulle's vision was, apparently, for a Europe of cooperating sovereign nation-states. In the class discussion ranged onto the old franc, the new franc and the euro. The French feel that they lost out when they went euro. So do the Germans and the Italians. The Spanish feel they lost out, too. "On a tous perdu" said the lecturer (we all lost out).
One student asked why Britain doesn't have the euro.
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