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

 

WWW silentmajorityspeaks.com

Weasel Words

The new EU Dictionary of Deception

by Edward Heathcoat Amery, Daily Mail, June 22, 2004

Nothing is what it seems when dealing with the EU, and especially not the English language. The Prime Minister apparently believes the public can be won round to Europe as long as ministers and EU officials learn to use the right vocabulary - words that conceal the truth about what is happening. Here we offer a New Labour European Dictionary of the language of deception.

Beano

As in former minister Keith Vaz's claim that the Charter of Fundamental Rights would have no more legal force than 'the Beano'. Instead, it creates rights to strike, to asylum, education, social security, health care and environmental protection.

Chairman

As in Chairman of the European Council. The constitution creates a more permanent President of the European Council who, in effect, will become the President of the new European State. But the British have insisted on calling this powerful and controversial new figure by the reassuring title of Chairman, designed to sound like the benign head of a company Board.

Competence

This is what the EU calls a power, but of course competence sounds less threatening. In a further wrinkle, the Constitution refers to 'shared competences', which means areas - energy, transport, social policy and others - in which national parliaments can only legislate if the EU chooses not to do so. This is not a normal definition of sharing.

External Action Service

The British lost the argument about calling the new European Foreign Minister by another title. We won the battle to have the European Foreign Ministry and Diplomatic Service (which will support the Foreign Minister) renamed the 'External Action Service'. But this change is entirely cosmetic.

Federal

The first draft of the constitution included in its preamble which explained the purpose of the EU, the contentious word 'federal'. After Mr Blair's intervention, it was replaced with the word 'community'. One of the reasons Mr Blair is so keen to prevent Belgian Prime Minster Guy Verhofstadt from becoming Commission President is that he committed the unforgivable sin of referring to the constitution as the 'capstone' of a 'federal state'.

Qualified Majority

A suitably technical term, often abbreviated to the even more obscure QMV, which Mr Blair is much given to using. What it actually means is surrendering the British veto - a word which ministers use only when they believe they have kept it - which the Government has given up in another 20 areas.

Tidying Up Exercise

Peter Hain, the minister in charge of negotiating the constitution, referred to it as a 'tidying up exercise'. That, of course, was in the days when a referendum was unthinkable, when there was no chance of a European Foreign Minister or Public Prosecutor, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights was never going to be a part of the Constitution. Even ministers now flinch when Mr Hain's words are repeated.

Treaty

The Prime Minister has signed a treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, but he has yet to use the word Constitution. Instead he refers constantly to the Treaty. There is irony in this, as the Constitution confers on the EU for the first time the power to sign binding Treaties with other sovereign nations on our behalf, as well as preventing the British Government from concluding treaties in area where the EU has 'exclusive competence' (see above).

One key question, of course, is whether the word Treaty, or Constitution, will appear on the question put to voters at the time of the referendum.