Of course, Winston Churchill is to blame

for Europe's current political and economic mess.
A fierce English nationalist,
he was so contemptuous of de Gaulle
and his Free French during World War Two,
that de Gaulle famously prevented the UK
from joining the Common Market
when it finally wanted to, and thus it had to wait ten years
and join as a supplicant rather than an equal partner.

Churchill also hated the break-away Irish,
who now are in something of a pickle
and face the possibility of a serious frontier
on their island...