Yes, these people live among us

This is a meme published on twitter today by Leave.eu. 

Is this really what Angela Merkel 'demanded' should happen? Did this experienced and respected European politician really want Britain to 'rot inside the Customs Union'? If so, why? 

Leave.eu is an anti-EU Facebook page. It is headed up by Arron Banks. I refuse to pass on his link but you can google it. Arron Banks is a nasty bit of work but a rich bit of work. In the brexit campaign, he threw a lot of money at those who wanted to leave the EU. He has many offshore contacts and an obvious talent for making money. Sadly this talent isn't at the disposal of you and me. It's really for making Arron and his pals richer.

There are so many things to say about this picture. First, it's quite true: we didn't 'win two world wars' - whoever 'we' are. If it hadn't been for the Russians, western Europe would be knee deep in Nazis right now. Yes, there were two world wars in the 20th century and the UK was involved in both: the first was a colonial war, with Germany and the UK battling to be 'top dog'. The second world war was a war as close as dammit to a 'just war', with many countries: with the USSR, the USA, France, etc., all fighting against Fascism.

No one in the UK ever acknowledges the part played by the Russian people in WW2. There may have been 14 million deaths in the USSR alone between 1940 and 1944. And that's before we start to add in the casualties in the Baltic states and Central Europe. The Russians don't even call it the second world war: for them, it was the Great Patriotic War. They knew what they were fighting for: the Nazis wanted to wipe them out.

It's laughable to talk about Britain being 'pushed around' by anyone in the second world war since it was backed by Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA - and it's time the Brits got over it.

Back at the meme, you'd have to be pretty dense to suppose that Angela Merkel can be described as a 'Kraut.' (What the hell is a Kraut anyway?) Merkel is an East German, born and brought up under Soviet-style government. She was part of the political grouping that reunified West and East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. They've made a good job of reunification. 

The Nazi-style salute is, to me, the ultimate insult. Why would anyone depict one of the UK's closest allies that way?

And if you don't think Germany, France and the other EU countries are not the UK's best allies, just hang about. We're about to find out what it means when they stop being our 'besties'.