'A problem with EU money is how it can vanish with no visible effect' - Peter Rhodes on decisions, munitions and the power of flags
Great excitement at Chateau Rhodes where the Openreach team are due today to install our super new full-fibre connection. Incidentally, if this column fails to show for a few days, you'll know the connection is not so super, after all.
The job is preceded by a check-list for us customers including the instruction that “a decision maker aged 18+ will need to be present throughout the appointment .” I am presumably a decision maker although some of my decisions are overruled by Mrs Rhodes. So does this make her a decision maker? I really can't decide.
How inflation works. The UK and our new best friends the EU are planning to create a £100 billion “global defence bank” from which we can borrow money to improve our nation's defences. Anyone else hear the alarm bells ringing?
The snag with military spending is that the moment you announce you are looking to buy a few thousand missiles or minesweepers, the price goes up. Before war broke out in Ukraine, you could buy a perfectly good 155mm artillery shell for £1,700; today the price is £6,800. I know what you're thinking: if only we'd stashed a few of those under the bed in '22, we'd be quids in.
Another problem with EU money is how it can vanish with no visible effect. You bung a few billion euros into a warplane contract and five years later the planes are still not delivered but, somewhere in Sicily, a senior official has a nice new palace.
It was worth recalling, as the EU flag fluttered at last week's summit, that when the Common Market was first created, no-one mentioned a flag, an anthem or a superstate. We were promised a free-trade area of sovereign democracies. It just grew.
When politicians and pundits try to understand the high emotions generated by Brexit, how much public anger is generated by the EU's yellow and blue flag? Flags are emotive things, encapsulating a nation's history and pride. They tell a tale of heroism and they evolve through centuries of hope, fear, glory and sacrifice.
The EU flag, on the other hand, is a testament to treaties, symbolising nothing more than bits of paper signed by rich men in suits. It's not a proper flag. Why should it be flown in any proper country?
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