“How and by whom do you wish to be governed?”.
Such was the simple and sharp question posed to a mostly grey-haired audience of eurosceptics at a meeting of the UK’s Bruges Group in London this evening by noted thriller writer, journalist and former RAF pilot, Frederick Forsyth. Your humble correspondent turned up to a packed audience to hear about Forsyth’s and noted EU legal expert Martin Howe on the subject of a possible new Constitution for Europe. It made for alarming hearing.
While partly overshadowed by the recent war on terror and the Iraq campaign, a group of senior European politicians and bureaucrats have been working to set up the framework for a new European Constitution, which would effectively destroy the present EU member states as sovereign self governing nations. There can be no doubt about the outcome. The result would be an undemocratic, unaccountable monster.
Here are some of the comments by Forsyth which I particularly liked: “I always took the view (during the development of the EU) that there was something to come, some finality, some point to be reached. We have now reached the stage….a single European nation state.”
Martin Howe: “It (the constitution) will destroy the sovereignty which the UK parliament ultimately possesses.” Another: “It is very difficult to see how any democratic control can be exercised over the organs envisaged in this Constitution.”
Howe said that the draft of the treaty for a new Constitution should be ready by the late summer of this year and could be ratified by member states in about two years’ time. That is right – just two years.
My impressions: well the audience for the two men last night was packed and I would imagine that about 99 percent of those present agreed with more or less everything said by the speakers. I heard no dissenting voices there.
Where does the libertarian meta-context relate to all this? After all, the desire for Britain to remain a parliamentary self-governing democracy is not the same thing as being, say, a minarchist libertarian who wants to get the State off his back. However, I would say from a pragmatic point of view, we have more chance of pushing forward our libertarian ideas within the framework of a common political entity underpinned by a shared culture and history than in a multi-lingual, multi-national behemoth headed by bureaucratic institutions with very sluggish lines of accountability. Hence I support the Bruges Group folk, even though my nose my wrinkle in distaste at some of the more reactionary language employed by some of its members.
I don’t get much impression that the issue of the EU Constitution is grabbing a lot of attention in the mainstream British media, although some of the tabloid press (let’s not sneer at them) are beginning to get on to this. No doubt Prime Minister Tony Blair is betting that he can sleepwalk us into his European nirvana. Let’s not let him get away with it.
I’ve been noticing the same lack of cover in the media here (Sweden). The only EU issue we read about is wether or not we should join EMU. No doubt, the lack of information and coverage will only result in United States of Europe (read: something really, really bad). Also, if we don’t even hear of this (the Constitution for Europe talk), what makes us think we will hear about all that’s going on in a future EU government?
Once again, I’m completely convinced that the right to have guns is vital. The day the people of a country loses that right, anything could happen. And that anything is often something very, very nasty….
I’ve been following the stories about the new constitution and what it would take away from the member nations.
Since this is not getting the media attention it deserves, do you suppose it will be accepted?
If it’s accepted, and *then* people realize what they’ve given up, what do you envision will happen?
I must confess to being a little concerned about some type of EU civil war, which I hope doesn’t happen. However, I can’t see all the EU nations just yielding up their rights without their citizens revolting at some time in the future.
And people wonder why the U.S. is suspicious of the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Protocol, and the U.N. Precisely for the reason of the loss of sovreignty.
Perhaps, cutting a deal for a North Atlantic Free Trade Zone might be a better bet for Brits?
“How and by whom do you wish to be governed?”.
Excuse me, if you please, but I don’t wish to be governed at all. Not by my government nor any other body. I am quite capable of self-government and whatever responsibility that entails.
Fortunately, as an American I don’t have to deal with the EU question but it is inconceivabe to me that any British citizen could possibly be enticed into sacrificing their autonomy.
I have read a great deal about this debate and I must confess I just don’t get it. You are resisting the impositions of your own government and considering the yoke of another?
I know, different groups different attitudes. But still – this is Britain! How can you even debate it?
lest my attitude seem superior I hasten to add that here in the US we are doing such a slendid job of creating our very own yoke that we don’t need any help from outside organizations.
Dave, agree with you 100 pct. I must say – and it is worth a series of blogs on its own – that the reason why the British political class and the intelligentsia became convinced that Britain must somehow give up our national independence is hard to pin down. I think the loss of empire, our relative economic decline – only recently halted and reversed – explains much of it.
And I am afraid that simple greed and power mania explains why a certain type of politician – Tony Blair, the late unlamented Roy Jenkins – want to set up a federal state. They want to run it.
Since I first learned what a European Union would be, the old joke about British taxation has always played itself out in my mind.
to wit:
American to British visitor : “You guys always go on about how great England is. At least WE don’t have taxation without representation!”
British vistor to obnoxiously rude American : “Very well, how does it feel to have taxation WITH representation?”
But I guess if England does become part of the
EU, they would then get representation THROUGH taxation???
Something to think about, my British brethren. This American will be so sorry if this happens to her cousins across the Pond…