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The Epilogue: “TheE European Journey”
Once upon a time the Europa tribe had had a big argument resulting in the destruction of their homes. The German family was held to blame, particularly to their shame was the burning of the local synagogue. The England family felt that they who had kept out of the main part of the fighting; they had done their best to prevent the trouble but it was agreed that they had finally taught the German family a lesson. The outcome was misery and starvation: they resolved that there had to be a better way of resolving family arguments.
An member of the America family called Marshall saw the plight they were in and agreed to loan them money and a member of the France family called Schuman put a plan together. Six families got together and thought they could plan a journey together. They only had old bicycles to start with; they had looked forward to a ride in the England family’s Rolls Royce. England refused as it did not associate with losers and collaborators; anyway the Rolls Royce was special and not really suitable.
The six families were a bit disappointed. They had tried to persuade England to come on the journey with them, but to no avail. Anyway, they set off after a bit of discussion and the journey went quite well. The Marshall loan enabled them to upgrade to small cars which were very popular. In fact the England family liked the small cars, particularly the German one based on an original Czech design from the village of the nettles in the Tatra mountains.
Things went so well that a Macmillan of the Scotland family asked if they and the England family might join it. “You will have to do a lot to catch up!” shouted Charles of the France family, “And do not bring all your distant relatives either!” The England family was a bit hurt by this. So the Heath man who had done much practical work to sort out the tribal dispute resolved for England to join the journey. So it came to pass, but a dispute with his miners put him out of favour at home. A referendum held by his successor showed that the England family were enjoying the journey and Jenkins was invited to play a leading role.
So successful was the journey that nearly all the families in the Western Europa tribe had joined in. They too had made terrific efforts to catch up. Some had complained that the new members were slowing things down. “We might not get to our chosen destiny if we go on like this!” chorused some led by France and Germany. England did not quite understand what they meant. Anyway the Rolls Royce had seen better days and was proving unreliable. Some of the older members of the England family spent much time tinkering with it; others wanted to walk off in a different direction all together.
As the journey took them through many different territories, both large and small, where each family had its own coinage, a brilliant suggestion was made: why not all use the same coinage. They got together in Maastricht and worked on the details. They had all agreed to go for a free exchange of goods and services, so a single currency seemed a logical consequence. The England family were divided over that one: logic was not their strongest suit. Even the efforts of the Scotland family with a new Blair in charge seemed to come unstuck here. He preferred to point to the families of the Russian dynasty, now in retreat and releasing the families of Lech, the Pole, Czech and Magyar who had come into view.
They seem overjoyed at the sight of the Europa tribe and all the families on a journey together. In fact they wanted to join on; they had waited so long in bondage. But the greeting they got was unexpectedly sullen. They had spoken of freedom and a future together, now they wanted to keep their new coinage and things. They will slow us all down, said the France family; we can find a structured way of accommodating them said the Fischer. The Blair seemed to welcome the new arrivals. Since he did not quite know where this was all going, then slowing things down might be a good idea. He failed also to appreciate that the new members might have a clearer idea of where we should all be going than he had. Or any of them for that matter.
John Seward 29.1.07
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