Referendum is an opportunity to win back our freedom
THE formal declaration of the result in the Yorkshire constituency of shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was the most compelling moment in a dramatic election night. His defeat served not only as a vivid symbol of Labour’s unexpected rout but also as an indicator of the raw brutality and vibrancy of British democracy.
The contrast between our political system and that of the European Union could hardly be greater. In Brussels lack of accountability has been elevated into a principle of governance. This is a bureaucratic world where elections are regarded with suspicion and public opinion with contempt.
Unlike Britain’s politicians none of the key fi gures in the European Commission have to submit to the verdict of the ballot box. Even the EU President, Jean- Claude Juncker, was appointed rather than elected to his post in charge of this self- serving cabal.
The disdain for democracy is refl ected in the EU’s hostility towards any real reform of its institutions. Nothing is allowed to interfere with its central ideological goal of creating a federal superstate.
That is why EU chiefs are so averse to any meaningful negotiations with David Cameron over Britain’s relationship with Brussels. The fact that more than 50 per cent of the British public backed the two main Eurosceptic parties, the Conservatives and Ukip, in the General Election means absolutely nothing to the fanatical federalists who run the EU.
But we may not have to put up with this bullying for much longer. Soon through the forthcoming referendum on EU membership the British public will have the chance to break free from continental rule.
FRESH from their convincing electoral victory, the Tories have put the promise to hold a national vote on Europe at the centre of the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday.
The legislation should easily pass the Commons especially because Labour announced yesterday that they are to abandon their previous opposition to the referendum, having experienced on the doorstep during the election campaign the deep unpopularity of their undemocratic policy.
There could be more trouble with the Referendum Bill in the House of Lords, which has an unhealthy preponderance of pro- European Liberal Democrats and ex- EU troughers like Neil Kinnock.
But resistance would be profoundly unconstitutional. According to political convention, the Lords cannot throw out a measure that was in a winning party’s manifesto.
Yet the real battle for Britain lies ahead. In the run- up to the referendum the British people will be subjected to a barrage of deceitful propaganda from the pro- Brussels brigade.
We will be told that if we vote to leave the EU our economy will collapse, leading to a breakdown in trade and the loss of more than three million jobs. Already the CBI, Britain’s leading business organisation, is urging that its members “turn up the volume” in favour of the EU because of the supposed threat to our prosperity.
But this organisation hardly has an impressive record when it comes to making judgments about our national interests. It was in favour of the appease- ment of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, nationalisation in the 1940s, tripartite deals with the trade unions in the 1960s, price controls in the 1970s and membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in the 1980s.
Similarly along with a host of other pro- EU campaigners, the CBI warned that our failure to join the single currency would have disastrous consequences.
As it turned out it is the eurozone that has been the real catastrophe, dragging continental Europe into a never- ending cycle of debt and stagnation.
The idea that we could not survive economically outside the EU is just defeatist, cowardly nonsense. Our trade, far from collapsing, would actually receive a massive boost, since we would be free to reach bilateral deals with other countries across the globe instead of being forced to wait for Brussels to begin talks.
At the same time we would still carry on trade with the EU member states, since they sell a great deal more to us than we sell to them. We would also be free of the burden of EU regulation and bureaucracy, as well as the requirement to pay £ 19billion a year into the coffers of Brussels.
But it is not just about economics. The EU referendum also provides the opportunity to regain control of our national destiny and reassert our selfdetermination. Nothing better illustrates the need to leave the EU than the Prime Minister’s imminent whirlwind tour of Europe’s capitals to persuade other political leaders of Britain’s case for reform.
AS THE democratically elected leader of our nation, he should not have to do this. The entire routine of pleading and negotiating demonstrates the profoundly unbalanced, humiliating nature of our relationship with the EU, as if Britain were nothing more than a distant colony begging a few favours from our imperial masters.
In truth any truly independent nation should have the right to control her borders, to run her own welfare system, to set her own taxes and to decide her own laws.
The EU, which increasingly treats the member states as nothing more than provinces of its empire, does not believe in such sovereign rights. That is why, for the sake of our national survival, we must leave. The referendum is our last chance to regain our freedom.
‘ Scaremongers will exaggerate dangers’