What a year 2015 was – and this one hasn’t started any better either

THE year started with terror and ended with terror, with multiple crises in-between

THE refugee crisis and terrorist attacks have raised global instability to its highest level since the Cold War. According to the UN, about 60 million people have been displaced through conflict, compared with 40 million in 1940, early in the Second World War. 

And according to the International Organisation for Migration, 1,004,356 migrants reached Europe in 2015. Thanks, in large part, to Mrs Merkel’s generous open-door refugee policy.

And what a year 2015 was, starting with terror, ending with terror with multiple crises in-between. The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris were followed by the eurozone crisis, which almost destroyed the single currency, before a record influx of migrants drove the passport-free Schengen zone to the verge of collapse. 

The year ended as it started, with terrorist attacks in Paris killing 130 people, carried out by DAESH jihadists who had travelled to Europe among refugees. 

Not to mention the mass sex attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve, again attributed to the work of single, young male refugees. 

This year hasn’t started any better with attacks already in Egypt, Jakarta and Istanbul. 

Well, it seems Mrs Merkel is single-handedly doing more to split up the EU than Cameron could ever hope to accomplish. Her extremely controversial policy (partly to crack one of Germany’s own problems of insufficient taxpayers to fund their ageing population), isn’t just threatening Schengen, one of the EU’s most prized achievements, but increasingly causing divisions between EU countries over border control and refugee quotas. 

Heck, with the experience she’s gained in bringing about this nightmare scenario, she should be turned loose on the EU itself. She’d surely be hugely successful in reducing the numbers of overpaid, pointless, purposeless bureaucrats who have made such a complete shambles of running it (and also the greatest beneficiaries aboard the infamous EU gravy train).

Some view the Brexit debate as a mere rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic ahead of another major crisis. As far as David Cameron’s concerned, he can only hope there’s no further terrorist attack or out-of-control migration crisis before the planned Brexit referendum. We’ll have to wait and see.

I recall the words of that great philosopher, Ronald Reagan: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” 

Let’s hope he’s proved wrong on this one…

Nora Johnson’s thrillers ‘Landscape of Lies’, ‘Retribution’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.nora-johnson.com) available from Amazon in paperback/eBook (€0.89;£0.79) and iBookstore. All profits to Cudeca charity