Alphen,
Netherlands. 3 February. Democracy was
strangled last week in the Mother of Parliaments. By killing the EU Referendum Bill on
instruction of their gutless, Machiavellian political masters in the House of
Common unelected Labour and Liberal Democrat peers set out with the express
mission to thwart the will of the people. This is but the latest example of Europe’s
steady retreat from democracy as the will of the people is replaced by ‘we know
best’ elitism. The very real and
frightening prospect of European autocracy now beckons and the European people
must fight it.
The
hypocrisy demonstrated by Britain’s not-so-great and not-so-good last week was
breath-taking. The whole point of
referenda is to put to the people issues of profound constitutional importance
that change the relationship between power and the people. Instead, what has taken place in the EU over
the last decade has been a massive shift of sovereignty from national
parliaments to the unelected Brussels bureaucratic elite.
And yet, the people have either been denied a voice or their views simply
ignored.
In 2005 the
so-called EU Constitution was put to referenda in France, Denmark, Ireland and
the Netherlands and all of them said no.
Rather than heed the will of the people the elite simply re-packaged the
Constitution as the 2007 Lisbon Treaty and told the people to vote again until
they got the answer ‘right’.
Britain did
not even get that far. Tony Blair had
promised the British people a referendum on the draft Lisbon Treaty. He then promptly broke his word when it
became clear the people had profound concerns about handing over so much British
sovereignty to Brussels. David Cameron made the same promise and then retreated using the spurious argument that the horse had already bolted by the time he came to power.
The people
were correct. Thanks to Lisbon over 50%
of all ‘British’ laws are now made beyond the compass of the Mother of
Parliaments with the phrase “new European regulations require…” a daily reality. Consequently, Parliament, like so many legislatures
of EU member-states is a shadow of its former self with Britain a hollowed-out state
that this year could collapse. Turn out
at elections is in precipitous decline partly because there is little point
voting for politicians who upon being elected tell the people they no longer
control borders, security or much else.
The experience of the Netherlands is little different. Thierry
Baudet, an academic and commentator, gathered 60,000 signatures which was sufficient
to trigger a debate in the Dutch Parliament on a popular vote on Dutch
membership of the EU. The Dutch
Parliament dismissed the idea of a referendum out of hand.
The irony
is that a referendum will indeed take place in Britain this year on Scottish
independence. Permitting only 8.3% of
the British people to decide the fate of a country of 65 million people that
has existed since 1707 is an obscene caricature of democracy. Moreover, having conceded to the Scots the
right to referendum the systematic denial of an EU referendum is rank political
hypocrisy but then the voice of the English in particular is systematically ignored by Westminster.
The elite
trot out the usual nonsense that referenda never answer the question put or are
mere comments on this or that government.
They suggest the people can in any case express their views via general
elections which involve a whole rag-tag of issues. Such assertions reflect utter contempt of
the elite for the people.
The irony
is that the denial of national democracy could paradoxically strengthen the
European Parliament and European federalists. The likelihood is that the current wave of anger
with Europe's incompetent leaders will see a huge
protest vote in the May elections to the European Parliament. The emergence of a European Parliament that
begins to function like a real parliament complete with a loyal opposition
challenging the usual motley crew of rubber-stamp European federalists could
see Brussels take on the appearance of a Washington or Canberra.
However, the rise of
Euro-realism and Euro-scepticism in the European Parliament will reinforce the
belief that the only debate that now matters is in Brussels (and absurdly
Strasbourg) because that is where power now lies. Holding the EU bureaucracy to account will
thus become more important than pointless regard for shrivelled up national
parliaments and parliamentarians whose only power it seems is to vote
themselves into history and irrelevance.
The problem
is that Brussels would only look like Washington or Canberra. If the European Parliament were Europe’s real
legislature effective representation of the European citizen would be diluted
from the current one deputy for every 50,000 people, to one for every
500,000. Moreover, such are the differences
in political culture, language and needs across Europe that the EU bureaucracy would
drive a London double-decker bus through parliamentary oversight.
By denying
the people a right to a fundamental question on a fundamental issue democracy was
strangled last week in London. In Europe
it will not be too long before national democracy exists in form only with the
once great countries which did do much to spawn freedom in Europe reduced to
little more than serf-like enablers of Brussels Law.
Julian
Lindley-French
