14 NEWS Best columns: Europe
UNITED KINGDOM
Half of Britain’s farms will go out of business if the
U.K. quits the European Union with no deal on
Oct. 31, said Polly Toynbee. That’s the conclusion
of a grim new report written by Séan Rickard, the
former chief economist of the National Farmers’
Union. Without a trade deal, the high proportion
of U.K. farm produce exported to the EU would
immediately be blocked by regulatory barriers,
and rendered too expensive by the bloc’s tariffs on
imports from nonmembers: 27 percent on chicken,
46 percent on lamb, 65 percent on beef. Britain
would also revert overnight to World Trade Or-
ganization rules, which means it “must let in foodfrom all over the world on the same tariffs and
terms, no picking and choosing.” The government
says it will remove tariffs on imported food to
keep prices down, but the resulting “import surge
would wreck British farming.” And what about the
famous deal with the U.S. that’s supposed to save
us? We’ll have no leverage in negotiations with
Washington if we’ve already scrapped all our tar-
iffs. Brexit voters were sold on a nostalgic image of
Britain self-sufficient and free, not “thrown to the
wolves of yet harsher globalization.” It’s a tragedy
“that so many farmers voted for this destruction of
their own livelihoods.”The suspected explosion of an experimental
nuclear-powered cruise missile during tests in
Russia’s far north earlier this month is proof that
Moscow “has been investing for years in a new,
modern arsenal,” said Pavel Lokshin. It’s also
proof that Russia plans to “use its arsenal not only
as a deterrent, but as a weapon of aggression.” The
Burevestnik—the missile thought to have blown up
at the Nyonoksa test site—is believed to be pow-
ered by a nuclear reactor. That would allow the
missile to fly for a virtually unlimited time and hit
any target wherever and whenever desired. That
is not a defensive weapon. And with America’s
recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-RangeNuclear Forces treaty, Russia is also free to deploy
short-range, tactical nukes all along its Euro pean
border. Would Russia threaten to use those nukes
“to gain the upper hand in a conventional regional
conflict,” for example by invading the Baltic states,
assuming that NATO would back down to avoid
nuclear war? Russia is being deliberately vague
about the circumstances under which it would use
nuclear weapons, to keep NATO guessing. But that
“risky confusion” has backfired. The U.S. is now
accelerating the modernization of its nuclear arse-
nal, and working on new, smaller tactical weapons.
“The era of nuclear disarmament is over,” and a
new arms race is upon us.Newscom, GettyTwo hundred and fifty years ago, Napo-
leon Bonaparte was born on the island
of Corsica, and Europe would never
be the same again, said Dominique
Bonnet in Paris Match. The French em-
peror’s birthday was marked in Corsica
last week with three days of festivities
overseen by Prince Jean-Christophe
Napoleon—Bonaparte’s great-great-
great-great-nephew and “pretender to
the throne of France.” The celebrations
included a re-enactment of Napoleon’s
most famous victory, the 1805 Battle of
Austerlitz, in which his forces decisively
routed a larger Austrian and Russian
army. Some 700 Napoleonic Wars enthusiasts from across Eu-
rope took part in the mock battle, blasting “deafening muskets”
and fighting hand to hand. Prince Jean-Christophe, a 33-year-old
investment banker with a Harvard MBA, spoke movingly of Na-
poleon’s achievements, including the creation of the Civil Code
of 1804—a set of clearly written laws that swept away the previ-
ous patchwork of confusing and much abused feudal laws—the
baccalaureate, and the Bank of France. He wondered mildly why
French President Emmanuel Macron was not in attendance, not-
ing that in 1969, then–President Georges Pompidou had led the
festivities for the bicentennial of Napoleon’s birth.Yes, why didn’t we declare a national holiday? asked Yves Jégo in
Le Figaro. Napoleon is one of the most famous figures in world
history, a self-made man and military genius who conquered Eu-
rope. Is politically correct France “ashamed of her history”? By
rejecting “our glorious past, we deprive our children of their legiti-mate legacy” and leave them to look up
to “imported heroes.” Napoleon’s gifts
to France deserve celebration, said Lau-
rent Ottavi, also in Le Figaro. “Never
has one man reformed so much.” Be-
coming first consul in 1799, he brought
France’s chaotic revolutionary period
to an end and “engraved the principle
of equality in marble.” By concluding a
concordat with the Vatican, he ensured
that the French state would be secular
even as its people remained Catholic. As
emperor and “heir to Charlemagne,”
he united continental Europe through
military victories and his civil code, the
basis of much European law to this day. He died alone on the
remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena in 1821, having been
exiled there by the British after his defeat at the 1815 Battle of
Waterloo. To the end he “oscillated between glory and failure,”
ensuring his status as a tragic, almost mythic figure.France does give the emperor his due, said Thierry Lentz in
Le Point. Don’t forget, when U.S. President Donald Trump
visited Paris in 2018, Macron received him at Napoleon’s tomb
and “played tour guide.” The previous year, Macron shepherded
Russian President Vladimir Putin through Versailles’ Gallery of
Battles, which celebrates numerous French military victories—
including some Napoleonic ones over Russia. While Napoleon’s
birthday this year may have been low-key, just wait for 2021,
the bicentennial of his death. The government has planned a
huge military exhibition and celebrations across the country.
France will “talk a lot about Napoleon in 2021—and beyond.”Prepare for
agricultural
Armageddon
Polly Toynbee
The Guardian
GERMANY
Prince Jean-Christophe and his emperor ancestorWhat is Russia
doing with
its nukes?
Pavel Lokshin
Die Welt
France: A too-quiet celebration of Napoleon?