Author Archives: Mike Guillaume

Mike Guillaume

Opinion: Deutschland über Europa? And why the UK should care

By Mike Guillaume | Sun 11th April 2010 - 12:20 pm

Since the World Cup of 1966 there has been a number of occasions for the British to hear the first lines of the former German national anthem: “Deutschland über alles. Über alles in der Welt” (“Germany above all, above all in the world”). Should a new line been added in the wake of the recent Greek crisis, and in the wait for the next one? Then it would go as “German above Europe”.

As the third major country in the EU, with France and Germany, the UK opinion and leaders should pay heed, even if this distracts a bit from home …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged and | 18 Comments
Mike Guillaume

Opinion: Another Greek tragedy? Time for Europhiles to admit the dream is over

By Mike Guillaume | Tue 9th March 2010 - 11:50 am

In case you wouldn’t have noticed, another crisis has come on top of the big one.

For those who understand French, read carefully this article in the March 5 edition of French daily “Le Monde” . A former German finance vice-minister buries the euro as it is now and advises all Southern-Europe economies (including France) to get out of the Eurozone if they don’t clean up their act, behave more like Germany and adopt many unacceptable social measures. Some German backbenchers have suggested these might include selling off some islands (who would buy these? You guess).

That doesn’t yet …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , and | 56 Comments
Mike Guillaume

Opinion: From shipyards to wind turbines – Britain needs BETS

By Mike Guillaume | Mon 15th February 2010 - 1:14 pm

“Where have all the good times gone?” That old song by The Kinks often comes back to my ears when I am in Britain –quite regularly, that is. The economy is not only going down, it is just not up to what it used to be.

The Cadbury flop

The takeover of Cadbury by Kraft Foods is just the latest in a long series. In less than three decades Britain has lost many of the jewels in its industrial crown.

One of the most spectacular examples is of course the car industry. When The Times writes about Jaguar Land Rover as “the UK’s …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 56 Comments
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