Dear Editor,
As a Christian who is positive about the EU I’d like to pick up on your last (tentative) point in ‘the commentary’ (July EN ) – that the EU has been instrumental in keeping the peace in Europe.
It’s a view that is largely ignored in Britain or, at very best, regarded as being idealistic and carrying little weight.
I wonder, are we being realistic or have we got our heads stuck in the sand?
The Blockhaus d’Éperlecques – a massive concrete bunker near Calais – was built by the Nazis to house the launch pads for the V2 rockets. These were designed to wage war on an unimaginable scale and were targeted, not at some unfamiliar place, but at Britain. The Nazi’s plan was to literally annihilate the whole of London and South East England. This isn’t science fiction – the Blockhaus is there. Neither is it a relic from ancient barbaric times – it was built only 70 years ago just 50 miles from Dover.
Seeing it drove home the unsettling fact that aggression, violence and war lie waiting just beneath the surface – and that we’re all capable of stooping to the depths of depravity. A plaque at the entrance to the Blockhaus explained that a determination to prevent such orgies of death and destruction was a major driving force behind the formation of the European Union.
The EU isn’t perfect and working together is never going to be easy. But it has got to be better than our natural inclination towards mistrust, rivalry and hostility and the horrors that can result.
Yours sincerely,
