There’s no defence for Boris’s evasion
THE EU trade deal talks limp on, but it is time to remind both the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Parliament that the Brexit Party has not lost sight of that other looming issue, which ministers appear to be trying to hide in the hope that nobody will notice until it is too late: the European Defence Union.
It is Nato which has kept the peace in Europe since 1945 and without which there would have been no deterrent to the mighty Soviet empire from invading the West any time it chose. In a choice between accepting command and control from the EU or continuing as we are with Nato, we must surely select the latter with its vast American nuclear arsenal but in which nations still have sovereign rights over their own defence procurement.
By contrast Ursula von der Leyen has said in terms that she wants a single defence contractor. Where the heck would that leave our own defence industries? It would be ludicrous to escape the tentacles of the EU only to find ourselves under its strategic command in matters military, daft to be free of its stranglehold on state aid only to be told that our defence industries cannot bid.
NO MAN can serve two masters and the choice is simple: the EU superstate or the voluntary, nation- respecting Nato. So why is Boris so silent on the issue? Why does Ben Wallace not give clear answers? Why does the UK Government seem to want to brush it all under the carpet? We are entitled to a straight answer to a straight question: now we have left the EU will the Prime Minister guarantee that we will also leave the European Defence Union? None of that rules out military co- operation with our European neighbours as they are also members of Nato which organises joint exercises and strategy development.
So let us ask a supplementary question: what can the EDU do that Nato cannot? There is no compulsion under any current agreement to commit ourselves to the EDU so why is Boris so evasive?
WHEN
I was an MEP
I said in a speech that all the animals would cheer on January 31 when Britain left the EU as it was the only way we could abolish live exports. Well, the transition period is now coming to a close, so what is the Government waiting for?