By far the most lunatic of fabrications I keep seeing
repeated about the EU is the notion that it is democratic. Not only is its
democratic merit close to nil, it's positively anti-democratic. Unlike an MP,
most MEPs cannot be kicked out. That would be terrible enough but it's
dramatically overshadowed by the fact that it's both the only somewhat democratic
element to the EU and that it's not where power is held and thus not where
accountability is most needed. The bogus comparison with the House of Lords
makes no sense for that reason. Imagine if the House of Lords was elected
through a system whereby you couldn't remove a large portion of them and you
had no say over the rest of the state whatsoever. Would that still seem
acceptable to you?
The description of the Council as democratic because its
members were elected to entirely different entities is beyond ludicrous. You
still cannot vote them out.
The idea that the setup of the EU is no worse than our Civil
Service is backward. The Civil Service is there to carry out the policies of
democratically elected governments. The EU's unelected bureaucrats are at the
top of their food chain, not answerable to democratic accountability.
The claim that our lack of say as British people is no
different from our lack of say as individual constituents within the UK is also
nonsense. Our voice may be 1 in 64 million nationally, but we make our
decisions for the most part on our self-interest in a national context. What
makes Britain prosper makes the vast majority of us prosper (Yes, even Scotland). When we weaken our
voice to 1 in 742 million in the EU, it's not merely less significant in
quantity, it's less significant in quality because the vast majority are not
voting on the basis of what they believe is right for the society and
jurisdiction we live in. A one size fits all policy in the interests of Eastern
Europe or Southern Europe is not likely to have our interests factored into it.
Our voice as individuals over our own society's laws becomes obliterated. That
we in return get to interfere in the societies of others is no consolation.
Our government has very little influence over the direction
the EU is taking. We as an electorate are so far removed from it as to have
none whatsoever. Power does not depend on voters and so no manifestos are ever
put to them. With no manifestos there are no mandates for policies. With no
mandates there's no real legitimacy save for the fact that we may well vote in
a referendum once in our lifetimes to give up on democracy in favour of the EU.
Even that is a dubious proposition. Of all the similar referendums on the EU
held in other member states, the results of most have been simply ignored. On
top of which, the EU actively agitates against a level playing field in the
control of information, pumping money into its British mouthpiece the BBC and
campaigns like Hacked Off, dedicated to state control of the press.
Under this undemocratic arrangement we have around half of
our laws (see the House of Commons Library research) coming from an unaccountable EU. We have an activist European Court of
Justice increasing its jurisdiction over areas it was not created for and
ignoring national opt-outs. We have a huge customs union, raising the cost of
living with higher than necessary prices, subsidies to inefficient industries
which only serve to make them even less efficient and while getting in the way
of focussing on our comparative advantage, and tariffs which cripple developing
world markets, industries and people. We have massive corruption, corporatism,
banking giants like Goldman Sachs cooking the books of irresponsible nations, forced bailouts of
those nations and mass youth unemployment across the continent. And perhaps
most worryingly, we're on a path of a rapidly increasing rate of
centralisation, deliberate removal of national sovereignty and state building.
With the inevitable and planned development of an EU army designed to rival
NATO under German command, proposed removal of German military restrictions on
using military force on domestic soil and the absence of democratic oversight,
our liberty as EU citizens is contingent on no more than wishful thinking. We
are left with the hope that our rulers are benevolent. Yet, as anyone who has
bothered to look can tell you, massive centralisation of power without
democratic accountability never goes well for those at the bottom. It breeds
disorder and disorder is usually followed by more centralisation. The 23rd June
is our very last chance to peacefully restore the sovereignty of the people
without the chaos the EU is saving up for us.
Vote for democracy.
Vote for Britain.
No comments:
Post a Comment