Europe

Competition between political entities, whether they are countries, states or cities, has correctly been identified as one of the fundamental conditions for creating prosperity. But in Australia, we have abolished the possibility of such competition at both the federal and the local level. If we want to prepare Australia for future growth it is high time to reinstall the ‘killer app’ that once made the West – and Australia – rich.

Unlike some, mainly British, commentators I do not derive any pleasure from looking at Europe’s problems. And though I am quite an EU-sceptic, I would still call myself a Europhile.

If there has ever been a country routinely punching above its weight it is Luxembourg. And if there has ever been a politician with an influence grossly disproportionate to his country’s power, it is Luxembourg’s interminable prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

When the European Union presents its economic forecasts, it often does not receive much public attention. Granted, one could argue that with the head of the IMF spending his week in a New York jail cell it’s understandable.

However, the EU’s latest figures are so extraordinary they should have generated more headlines. Not only do they demonstrate that Europe’s debt crisis is far from over. They are also a damning indictment of Europe’s crisis management so far.

have always wondered why SBS keeps broadcasting the Eurovision song contest year after year. How would any sane person survive a whole evening watching weirdly dressed Ukrainian folk singers, Moldovan punk rockers or Israeli transvestites? Who cares for cringeworthy presenters in glitter suits that were not even fashionable when they were invented? And I haven’t even mentioned the absurdly tedious scoring system.

The evil spirits unleashed by the euro apprentices are not just a disaster for the continent’s economy. They have the potential to damage and weaken the political systems in many of its countries. There is no master wizard to stop this looming catastrophe; there is not even a master plan.

You would think that the transformation of the European Union into a transfer union, the extension of the rescue facility for the continent’s fragile currency by a few hundred billion dollars, and new policy dictates to struggling economies like Greece would be of some interest to the wider public.

Europe’s political class finally acknowledges that their pet project of free-for-all multiculturalism was a delusion. But to correct its disastrous consequences requires more than carefully crafted speeches at international conferences.