baldysblog.co.uk

My view is that the UK and the EU would be better apart although that said, if there were a proper and informed debate followed by a referendum and the majority result was that we should stay in, I would accept the decision of my fellow Britons.

However and as we keep on seeing and regardless of the political persuasion of the British Government, there are never proper explanations given to the electorate on this matter. Politicians come to power and are immediately lobbied by British Civil Servants about why we have to stay in the EU.

One suspects that these same “copper plating” Civil Servants neglect to mention their own vested interests in the advice they give plus as most politicians are barely capable of tying their own shoe laces, like Brown and Milliband, they do as they are told rather than as they should. This ultimately may lead to a belief amongst the citizens that it will only be by violent confrontation that the matter will be properly settled in the UK.

All UK Politicians Need To Be Confronted

One may ask whether the EU is so important as to lead to insurrection ? The answer is most likely of itself no but as a symbol of the arrogance of the “British Ruling Classes” and whether as politicians or civil servants, their increasing disconnection from the citizens of the UK closeted in their modern day version of Versailles – The Village of Westminster, it might well lead to a “Runnymede ” moment and the need for a “new relationship” between the governors and the governed, in fact a new Magna Carta.

Let’s be honest here, the public’s view of politicians of all parties is very low and although the Tories have a substantial lead in the polls right now and most certainly Labour under Brown has no chance of winning at the next election, I still wouldn’t bet against a hung Parliament.

This lack of communication on the EU is not just specific to the UK, it is also Europe wide. The EU is too lazy and contemptuous of all EU citizens to even bother to attempt to explain itself so really there is a need for the UK to force the pace for the sake of all Europeans.

Nobody in Europe needs the EU

Now whilst this may seem an extremist view, it will not be so within a decade because the only certainty with the EU is that without the Cold War to keep people united, the lack of democracy, the power of the larger states within the EU and lack of accountability will inevitably lead to another European war, the UK needs to stand aside from this sad inevitability. The EU will never be a “superstate” if only because it has more in common with the Hapsburg Empire than the USA and may well suffer the same fate.

Britain doesn’t need the EU, neither does Germany which would be better off without the Euro too, neither would France given its land mass, if the current and projected food crisis manages to get French farmers off their bottoms so that they earn a decent wage without needing the awful CAP.

But For Britain… from a purely British perspective, my reasons for being opposed to the EU are purely practical rather than emotional and fall into three distinct categories, Fit, Accountability and Democracy.

No.1 We Just Don’t Fit In

Although a ‘European’ country, we are and always have been on the Western fringes of Europe and perhaps because we are island races, different in our approach and conduct to continental European nations. Perhaps this is a long term historical consequence of the drive from East to West with the British Isles the last bastion of the Celtic dispossessed, who knows but we are very different.

Let me underline this in a slightly different way:

Much as I have enjoyed my various travels within Europe, it is the differences that make it interesting and it is fun to be an “outsider” who can observe the way things happen and are done in France, Germany and so on. However and leaving aside a common language, there is nowhere in Europe that feels so instantly “at home” as say visiting somewhere like the States or English speaking, Canada. The various countries of the “Anglo sphere” are very different from each other and yet, there is an unspoken understanding, a cultural commonality when you visit them and this is more than just a matter of common language.

History Matters

England specifically was created by The Normans who ruled for a long time even if, they saw France as being more important than England would ever be. But regardless of that, the combination of Norman, Saxon, Celts and Danes formed and forged first England and later the Union. Whilst Scottish Law has an affinity to Napoleonic Law, English/Welsh Law has none and if you cannot establish the common rule of law, then you cannot forge a proper civil society.

In a legal and cultural way (in the broadest meaning of the latter), we are totally at odds with the very nature of the EU, General de Gaulle was right about this, Ted Heath was totally wrong, we simply do not fit in. And it is more than that because our ‘value’ to the narrative and history of Europe, is based upon exactly that, our being apart even to the extent of us standing alone defiantly and giving succour and support to oppressed European neighbours. This is our true role in and “for” Europe not the foolish Blair “At the heart of Europe” because “I want a job there once the UK is totally sick of me and my Wife, just like the Kinnocks”.

No.2 Accountability

Accountability is a very serious issue if only because within the EU, it doesn’t seem to exist. Even the Auditors have refused to “sign off as true and fair” the accounts of the EU Commission for 13/14 years in succession, it is inevitably, a truly corrupt organization that only employs corrupt people and as a “Brit” one might say “So what !”

But a “So what” doesn’t cover it, “Corruption is Rust” and like rust, eats away from the inside and the outside but inevitably, destroys the ‘host structure’ completely. However, my analogy may not be totally correct because in all honesty, rather than ‘rust’ perhaps ‘Bindweed’ may be more appropriate.

A Silly Story but, With a Purpose:

I am no ‘gardener’, far more an ‘engineer’ so in dealing with the ‘jungle’ that is our backyard, I have not been over-enthusiastic but that said, up until about 2-3 weeks ago and before the really ‘bad weather’ came in, had made a serious and ‘structural’ start on re-building the whole space. It is only in these past few days that conditions have permitted a return to tackling my objectives and I must say, I am so impressed with “Bindweed” which like cockroaches must amount to amongst one of ‘Mother Nature’s best tools’.

Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is amazing, there surely must be an ‘industrial use’ for it ! It has in just two weeks of mainly heavy rain, created multi-threaded ropes around any plant and physical structure in the garden. From a purely British perspective, the EU itself is like bindweed in that it turns normal people in public service within the UK, into poisonous chocking weeds and corrupts them by seemingly ‘sucking their brains and consciences out of their bodies so that they can only see… we are not sure what they see – retirement in the Sun (?), but they no longer serve us !

The British Civil Service confronted with any edict from Brussels, instead of like their French equivalents, finding ways to ‘frustrate it’, immediately go into ‘over-drive’ in trying to find a way to ‘copper plate’ the Brussels rules and make the whole thing far more ‘dictatorial’. I can remember a few years back some “edict” of in-shore fishing which “snotty mindless officials” on the south coast, prosecuted fishermen despite their beach launched boats being well below the length of vessel to which such “EU Rules” would apply.

Sadly I suspect that our Judiciary and certainly the majority of our “political classes” have all gone the same route years ago, personal corruption abounds and anybody who comes in contact with Brussels, becomes involved and totally tainted. Gordon Brown’s pathetic gesture was to turn up late and sign the evil document privately which apart from graphically illustrating just how bad the deal is for the UK, also demonstrated just how much a Prime Minister of the UK has given away all this, the Monarch’s and our powers for what promise of personal financial gains ?

The Foreign Secretary’s family sought shelter and freedom in the UK , in return a descendent of their family has sold all of us Britons into eternal bondage to Brussels for What ? If they ( the Millibands), recovered great family heirlooms and wealth as a consequence, perhaps we could understand but this arrogant little puppy offers us no explanation or justification for his actions so, as a possible future leader of the Labour Party – I hardly think so , the man is a Quisling and Traitor to the UK !

Who Is Your Boss ?

The real problem seems to lie in these people not seeing themselves as ‘accountable’ to the British electorate even to the extent of taking the time to explain their actions so that the impression we the electorate have of them is that we are “competent to vote for them” but, incompetent to understand ‘specific issues’ at which time, we become a nuisance they just can’t be ‘arsed’ with. That New Labour, Brown and all his crap Government are ‘so over’ even if they cling on until May 2010 is no longer the point, will Cameron and the Conservatives fail us also, is the question ?

No.3.The Democratic Deficit

This is most likely the most provocative aspect of the EU and the one key area on which it will flounder eventually because the enlargement has radically changed both the nature and the character of the EU and to some extent, shifted its central core further eastward and away from the original founding States that signed the Treaty of Rome. This shows up not just in “null points” in Eurovision, it may well show in countries who have only recently gained their democracy being unwilling to surrender it. True, many could be bought for a time if there was enough “EU Largesse” to be spread around but given the economic situation… null points there.

The only feasible structure for a fully democratic and accountable EU would be to abolish all national parliaments and replace them with the EU Parliament only and no one has had the guts to put that proposition to the people of the EU and until they do, the EU will remain the farce it is.

We have a Brussels Bureaucracy that is completely out of control and does exactly what it likes unhindered by the “elected representatives” of the EU States. All deals are worked out in advance and presented to the EU Heads of State who are only left to debate the colour of the wallpaper.

The various national parliaments are slovenly and inconsequential, 80% of Laws are generated by Brussels as directives with national interests totally subservient to the Bureaucrats in Brussels who are now an unelected “Ruling Elite”. The whole thing is a total nonsense and someone like Gordon Brown talking about his “red lines” as if they mean a damn, is pathetic.

I say we leave this charade but most certainly, we the British people should have the choice not those with their noses in the trough. Brown won’t give us what Labour promised and instead gives us mealy mouthed excuses as befits the gutless incompetent he has turned out to be. Click Clack Clegg with his £60k pension as a former MEP, is of course of no use to the British electorate on this topic as in others, the real question is whether Cameron will deliver or, will he get bought off like all those before him ?