Historia est Magistra Vitae: no Grexit, no Greece

The last few days showed the EU as a very resilient organisation: the Bundestag had just approved the Greek bailout, after Finland, France and Austria. But it also showed EU stretched to the breaking point: there is no Grexit but there is no Greece either.

Let us step back and look at the recent past from the future perspective through the prism of the UK. 100 years hence the history of the UK could read like this:

At the beginning of the 21st century the UK was the only state able to offer an alternative to the Franco-German concept of unified Europe. But, rather than introducing UK's own concept based on liberal values, individual independence and social liberal policies, the UK spent its energy on questioning the EU concept (so called 'opting out') and fighting in-between themselves under the then Conservative leader Cameron. This meant that the UK was not offering any viable alternative and completely lost its direction. With the diminishing role of the USA, the Anglo-Saxon governance model, so prevalent during 19th and 20th centuries ceased to play any meaningful role as 'the bureaucratic super-state' took on an ever increasing role.

Nowhere else was this role of a powerful state exercising its interest so obvious as in the introduction of a common currency (see Euro). Creation of a union where a common currency plays the major unification role was a well rehearsed experiment for Germany. The EU unification at the beginning of the 21st century was not dissimilar to the 19th century German unification (bund) when Otto von Bismarck introduced a currency and a custom union to unify 'German speaking states' (Zollverein). But the UK failed to learn from the same history: In the 19th century the only power able to offer an alternative to Prussian (Bismarck) domination was the Austrian Empire. The Austrians of the 19th century had a similar position to which the UK found itself in 21st century.

Unfortunately, the UK decided to follow the Austrian reaction without due regard for the consequences: In the 19th century Austria fought the creation of the 'bund' rather than offer a credible alternative (see Prince Klemens von Metternich and Prince Otto von Bismarck). The UK adopted the same 'negative campaign' in the 21st century. With similar events and similar reactions the results were also similar: the same way the centre of European affairs moved from Vienna to Berlin in the 19th century, London lost its influence in favour of Frankfurt in the 21st century.

End of hypothetical future history reading.

To avoid the above scenario becoming true the UK needs to stop saying what it does not want in the EU and must fight for what it does want. Stop linking Grexit and Brexit. Start thinking: advancement, political autonomy, peaceful co-existence, fairness, liberties, human rights and personal responsibilities. This should also be a natural territory for the Liberal Democrats. Let's go for it. EU" in or out" referendum should be our next defining battle.

* George Smid was the Liberal Democrat candidate in South Holland and the Deepings in 2015. He is a member of the East Midlands Regional Executive, the English Council Executive and is a former European candidate