Popping illusions, Swiftly

In 1729, Jonathan Swift published "A Modest Proposal" as a wake-up call for his fellow citizens to turn their attention to the impoverishment of the Irish. It's not clear whether the authors of a recent report for the EU had Swift in mind when they featured a "modest proposal" chapter at the end of their report, but their recommendations are a wake-up call for EU politicians.

The report eschews the typical compendium of EU ailments and the commonly proposed solutions, which assume the EU has the world's best science and is held back only by lack of appropriate technology transfer instruments, a notion known as the "European paradox."...