Self-Delusion?

Two posts of differing views on Britain's membership of the European Union caught my eye, one by Ed West and the other by Alex Massie.

Ed West, discussing a post by Tim Montgomerie on Conservative Home, and suggestiing that if the term EUSSR is not acceptable then how about 'Euroslavia', writes:

"However, when we compare the EU with the Soviet Union we’re not talking about the era of Stalin, Beria, the gulags, and the mass murder of middle-class peasants, Balts, Kazakhs and Tartars – no, we think of the EU as being more like Andropov or Chernenko-era Russia, a decrepit, corrupt, bankrupt superstate run by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats with negative charisma. The only difference is that the Soviets didn’t have their military needs taken care of by the United States. And there are similarities – the EU’s propaganda aimed at children, for example, has totalitarian overtones, and EU government itself is institutionally undemocratic, and has created a class of politicians wildly remote from the public at large. But most of all the EUSSR tag works for one supreme reason:  we have never been given a vote on membership of the EU. Until that happens, we Eurosceptic fanatics who believe in mad, extreme ideas like the sovereignty of nation states are perfectly entitled to compare the EU to another undemocratic superstate of recent years."

Alex Massie, to whom Ed West links, writes in rebuttal to an article by Janet Daley:

"I say this because, at the moment, there doesn't seem to be a majority in favour of withdrawing from the EU. If euro-sceptics want that to change they should probably stop peddling nonsense that is contradicted by the evidence that people see for themselves. The EU really isn't very much like the USSR and it's most unlikely many people will be persuaded that, actually, it is and they're just too stupid to see the chains that bind them."

So there doesn't seem to be a majority in favour of withdrawing? Alex Massie obviously does not pay attention to opinion polls then.

Massie also states:

"Some of them might even find the comparison between totalitarian societies occupied by the Soviet Union and a peaceful association of democratic countries (which, remember anyone is free to leave) who agree to work together on issues of common interest to be either offensive or hilarious. Or both. It's certainly deluded."

Oh yes, anyone is free to leave, but at what cost? And there is a slight difference between agreeing to work together on issues of common interest and being politically ruled - is there not?

Who is suffering from self-delusion? You decide.