Lies about the EU took us to Brexit
IF you stand back and study the British people from afar – something I have often done from foreign postings – you perceive that we are a very gullible people. We tend to believe what we are told. That is because we are not accustomed to being lied to. When we discover we have been, we get annoyed. That is why a majority voted to detach our country from the EU. Our neighbours across the Channel have no such naivety. To them, official mendacity is normal. For years we have been told that we remain a sovereign selfgoverning nation-state. Actually, we haven’t been for years – certainly not since John Major signed us up to the Treaty of Maastricht, which changed everything. We were told that Maastricht was just “a tidying up exercise”. In fact it transferred most of our sovereignty from London to Brussels.
There are four simple criteria in the form of questions. Is there any government in the world that can overrule the British one on matters concerning only the British? Yes, Brussels. Is there any court that can over-rule the British Supreme Court? Yes, the European Court of Justice. Do we have the right, through our elected government, to decree who may enter our borders, how long they may stay and who may have to leave? No, Brussels does. Lastly, can we clinch any trade treaty with anyone we choose? Not without permission from Brussels. Thus governmental, judicial, territorial and mercantile sovereignty resides in Brussels, not London.
Most of those now described as Remainers have not worked this out yet. Of the balance, some are not fussed either way and a small but powerful minority wholly approve because they pursue the dream of a totally unified continent. We also under-estimate the sheer rage that our decision in the ballot box generated both among British EU-fanatics and among our masters in Brussels. Do not be fooled by all the beaming, handshaking and embracing that we see in our papers every time Theresa May shuttles over there asking for concessions. The whole point of the Brussels negotiating team is to ensure that the British pay for their impertinence by suffering and suffering badly. A perfectly workable, fair and peaceful relationship between post-EU Britain and the EU remaining bloc could be signed tomorrow. But for Brussels, a UK that was independent, content and flourishing would be a disaster. There would be four or five copycats
within a year of Britain surging back to trading prosperity. End of Utopia. End of bureaucratic dream-state. End of gravy train. The idea that those running the EU are our “partners” is another porky-pie. They are our dedicated opponents who wish us nothing but misery. It would be so nice if the May Government woke up and smelled the coffee. Every supplicant-shuttle over the Channel by a beggar from Downing Street humiliates us.