Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
|
Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary people
are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question which
throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member might
reveal himself or herself to be a human being like us, and
not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might tell
the truth.
Ann
Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair
wants to leave his mark on history - looks more like a stain
to me.
Peter
Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
|
May
11, 2005 (741 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,610 US - 88 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
Britain
has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors
to the EU because we do not get as much money back from
Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According
to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average
contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The
French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed
£1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their
population.
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Forget
the French . . . . it is now more vital than ever that we British
have our say
How
Chirac the cynnic lost touch
with his people
N
O N!
French
give kiss of death to EU Superstate
This
vote reveals lies at the heart of the European project
The
Melanie Phillips Column - Daily Mail, May 30, 2005
Like
the demise of Mark Twain, rumours of the death of the European
Union have been greatly exaggerated. The implications of yesterday's
French referendum on the EU constitution were amply summed up
in advance by Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker, current EU president,
when he declared that if the French said 'oui', European integration
would proceed, and if they said 'non', European integration would
proceed.
That's
what the EU means by 'consulting the people'. That's why France's
President Chirac threatened that if the French voted no, they
would be made to vote again until they said yes. No doubt such
a fate will also befall the Dutch if they vote 'nee' in their
own referendum on Wednesday unless they do so by an overwhelming
majority.
IMPOSED
For
regardless of the constitution, the reality is that the countries
of the EU are already the helpless captives of an all-encompassing,
anti-democratic bureaucracy with a life of its own. Much of the
constitution was always going to be imposed upon us anyway through
these seemingly endless wrinkles in existing EU treaties. Indeed
the creation of an EU diplomatic service and harmonisation of
criminal justice are already well under way.
Daily
Mail Comment
Monday,
May 30, 2005
VIVE
la France! Vive la republique! Vive la liberation!
The
French people have seen through the spin and bluster of
those who told us the constitution was a mere tidying
up exercise. They've struck a mortal blow to a document
which, as the Mail's own referendum campaign warned, threatened
nothing less than the end of each nation's ability to
govern itself.
No
doubt - as ever - many French citizens voted Non out of
self-interest. Many voted Non because they believed (wrongly)
that the constitution was too biased towards the views
of Britain. Many voted Non because they have no desire
to have their hidebound, featherbedded industries subjected
to the chill wind of competition.
NO
MATTER. What does matter is that a grotesque and wrong-headed
document has been all but buried.
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In
other words, nothing so trivial as the will of the people would
ever be allowed to derail the EU project, which has come to define
the world view for a whole class of politicians, bureaucrats and
lawyers who have governed the nations of Europe for a generation.
Nevertheless,
the French referendum campaign has dramatically exposed the profound
contradictions and faultlines at the heart of the whole EU project.
Passions unleashed by the constitution relate not just to the
treaty itself but, far more fundamentally, to the European dream.
Millions of European voters have grasped that the EU project is
a swindle, sold to them on the false prospectus that it would
bring prosperity. Instead, they find their countries crippled
by economic sclerosis.
The
problem, however, is that many do no understand why this has happened.
Many French voters who voted 'non' did so for the wrong reasons.
They believed the constitution would foist upon them Anglo-Saxon
market disciplines and expose them to chill winds of competition
from foreign companies and workers. Ironically, this position
is the diametric opposite of the British 'no' voters, who rightly
fear further integration with Europe would destroy our economic
advantage to leave us similarly crippled.
What
French 'non' voters don't seem to grasp is that the whole EU edifice
rests on a set of fantasy foundations. The first is the premise
that the nation states of Europe have common interests. In fact,
they have rather more irreconcilable social, political and cultural
differences - their economic interests lie in being in competition
with each other - the very thing the EU is in business to stifle.
The
second great myth is that the EU can become a rival global power
to the US - the social welfare state versus the unbridled free
market. Euro-fanatics are so wrapped up in this infantile hostility
that they have failed to notice that the world has moved on. Both
India and China are fast becoming major competitors; the developing
markets are in Asia and the Far East; and newcomers to the EU
from eastern Europe are American economic wannabes.
The
last thing they want to do is emulate stagnant, high-unemployment
economies like Germany, where voter revolt has caused beleaguered
Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder to advance the date of the general
election.
The
third fantasy is that the nation state is the cause of war and
only the supranational EU has kept the peace in Europe since World
War II.
VIOLENT
This
is the most dangerous rubbish of all. Peace in Europe was guaranteed
by NATO's Atlantic Alliance. Indeed, it is when self-government
is suppressed and national identity threatened that people turn
violent. In those circumstances, they would also be far less keen
to fight against any enemy threatening their freedom - because
they would no longer have any significant freedom to defend.
As
the MEP Daniel Hannan has argued, the main threat to freedom comes
from supranational tyrannies - communism, Nazism, Islamic totalitarianism
- to which only the nation state can offer any proper defence.
Yet the EU is fundamentally hostile to the very idea of nation
states. Not only is it emasculating national powers, but its erosion
of national borders has encouraged mass movement of peoples across
the continent, the very thing fuelling the pan-European voter
revolt.
The
French are the driving force behind the European supranational
ideal. Yet when faced with the inevitable consequences - the arrival
of millions of foreigners who threaten not only French jobs but
French national identity - the don't like it. The wholly erroneous
belief that the nation state is a recipe for war and that, instead,
a supranational government should impose laws and values to which
everyone signs up, which will spread harmony and good will in
place of conflict, is precisely what is embodied in the EU constitution.
Its
extension of EU powers would take away what remains of our ability
to govern ourselves. It would deprive us of control over finance,
foreign police, defence, taxation, social security, criminal justice,
immigration and a host of other policies. The wholesale transfer
of power to a brand new pseudo-state would reduce Parliament to
the status of Westminster regional council. As such, it sounds
a death knell for democracy.
HYSTERICAL
This
has never worried the French because the EU is quintessentially
a French project. France has always been in the driving seat,
telling other states what to do and rigging the EU rules to suit
itself. Other countries also do not share these concerns because
they have a shaky historical attachment to democracy and liberty.
This
is why the objections to the constitution by the British people
are so very different and so very emphatic. Despite the lies that
were told about the constitution being merely a 'tidying up exercise'
- a comic counterpoint to President Chirac's hysterical claims
that a 'no' vote would destroy the EU - the British understand
that what is at stake is our unique culture of liberty, independence
and democracy.
A
great fissure in the world has opened up between those who believe
in the nation state and those who believe it must be superseded
by supranational institutions, which do away with a nation's identity
expressed through its own laws and values.
The
EU constitution represents a great leap forward in that rolling
revolution. But whatever the final fate of that particular treaty,
the fanatical and corrupt elite that drives the EU onwards will
not give up. Through bullying, lies and intimidation, they will
continue to deprive us of our ancient liberties, slice by salami
slice.
However
the political aftermath of the French and Dutch votes plays out
in the short term in Britain and in Europe, the fact remains that
the UK now needs to have a full and frank debate about its place
in a European Union presenting such a clear threat to our constitutional
traditions and national identity.
The
death of the EU might have been exaggerated - but the danger of
the death of British democracy can hardly be overstated.
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