It is 20 years to the day since the Berlin Wall fell and East Germans were allowed to leave the country that was their prison.
I was only 12 when it happened and I didn’t really understand what was happening but the constant news coverage and sight of people dismantling the wall by hand as soldiers stood by and watched them meant that I didn’t need to understand the rise and fall of communism, the partition of Germany and the cold war. I understood that history was being made and that a lot of people were suddenly very happy and bewildered.
It’s ironic that the 20th anniversary of the end of communism in Europe was marked by the signing, in the former communist republic of Czechoslovakia, of a treaty establishing a new socialist empire in Europe and by the call for a communist redistribution of the wealth of banks by our very own marxist Prime Minister.
The people of Europe have short memories, it seems.
Hi Wonko
I thought I’d point out a couple of typos in your post
You should have written “free-market” empire instead of “socialist empire”, it should be “criminal distribution of wealth by way of the re-introduction of big bonuses to bankers”, and “by our very own marxist Prime Minister” should read “capitalist prime minister”.
Or are you just trying to poke us lefties with a stick to wake us up?
Well said wonko. The fall of the Berlin Wall, although dramatic, hasn’t made any difference to Europe really. This new EU Constitution aka Lisbon Treaty will prove to be the turning point for the lack of freedom we’ve always treasured.
I remember the wall. It was there not only to stop democracy but also to prevent both immigration and emigration.
You were twelve? You were twelve??? Good grief! I’m old enough to be your da…your big brother!
I thought that the true celebration of the fall of the wall took place in our very own House of Commons. On the same day that Angela Merkel was re-enacting her walk to freedom, Jack Straw was defending his bill to make every click of every mouse available to the eighty odd organisations who defend our freedoms through the RIPA Act.
The ‘safeguard’; that we should trust them. Yeah, right.
The motto of the Stasi; ‘to know everything’
The aim: to maintain a corrupt and undemocratic system in power.