Airstrip One

Barnier's Barmy Army

Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of the defence working party at the European Convention, has put forward a mutual defence pact, separate from the Nato defence structure as it is his (political) ambition to "call into being a new defence initiative". Not content with the current structures, Barnier wants every member state to defend each other when they are attacked, as

The hour of truth is coming for Europe: do we want to be only an economic and financial community or do we want to become an independent political power?

If this does not occur, Europe would be reduced to the status of a "large supermarket". This analogy does not work especially as Tesco's or Walmart/Asda are more popular and more useful that this mathom.