Might the members of
the ‘elite’ then try to obstruct the popular will? Perhaps. I know it might seem
far-fetched to imagine the ‘elite’ group in a liberal democracy like Britain
deliberately subverting the majority verdict of the people. Let us remember that
the French and Dutch people both voted against ‘the European Constitution’ in
2005.
But the European ‘governing elite’ (I mean
the European Commission and the related bureaucracies in both EU institutions
and at the national level) were determined to override the French and Dutch
referendum results. And they did so. Within less than five years the
Lisbon Treaty – which incorporated the European Constitution more or less in
toto – was accepted by all member state governments and ratified by all
national parliaments.
The Conservatives say
that a vote for them is a vote for a referendum, because Cameron has given a
commitment to holding a referendum in 2017. Really? As far as Europe is
concerned, the Conservatives have always been the party of appeasement and
compromise. Cameron has also made plain that the planned renegotiation is not to
be about fundamentals and that he regards the UK’s departure from the EU as
‘madness’. He cannot be trusted. The historical record of the Conservative Party
in our relations with Europe is appalling.
Let
it never be overlooked that the Conservative Party is the party of Neville
Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and Ted Heath. I wish I could say that David Cameron
were not in the same mould.
A high risk is that
he would seek a half-way house – like the Norwegian ‘solution’ – in which the UK
remains in the European Economic Area, incorporates much of the acquis in
our own law and pays money to the EU ‘for access to the single market’. That
would be better than the full EU membership we now have, but it would be a
betrayal and a mistake.
The British people
deserve full independence from the dysfunctional and failing European Union.
They deserve to be like the great majority of the world’s population, in the 160
or so countries – including our fellow Commonwealth members, Australia, Canada
and New Zealand – that do not belong to the EU at all.
An unfortunate debate
has already started about article 50 in the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out the
procedure for a nation state to leave the EU as the EU sees the matter.
Article 50 has been described as ‘the only hope’ for the recovery of full
British independence from the EU. Rubbish. (I wonder if any of our colonies
regarded an Act of the British Parliament as their ‘only hope’ for independence.
Tell that the American Tea Party! And did any nation of Eastern Europe see a
treaty with the Soviet Union as ‘the only hope’ of quitting Comecon, the Warsaw
Pact and Russian tyranny?) But I have numerous discussions with UKIP supporters
about the irksome and irrelevant article 50. Such discussions are a waste of
time. Too many people are conned by this sort of thing, which – let me emphasize
– is devised by the EU bureaucracy to divert us from our one and only goal,
which must be full independence. (I mean full independence from the EU, just as
Australia, Canada and over 150 other countries have.)
My second point is
that UKIP does not need to hurry. The EU is – as I said – a dysfunctional
failure. That will become ever more obvious as the years go by.
There is a risk that in, say, 2017 we have an Out
referendum result under a government full of what one might term ‘closet
Europhiles’. In other words, we have an Out referendum under an In
government. (Who cares whether that government is led by the
Conservatives or Labour or is a coalition government? Who cares, since they are
pretty much the same on domestic policy and all of them want of us in the EU?)
The argument of my article is that UKIP must avoid deals with the other parties.
Sure enough, one resolution of the problem would be for one of the three other
parties to elect a leader who – genuinely and without reservation – wants
Britain out of the EU. Fine, and let that party then fight a general election on
a platform that included full withdrawal from the EU. Fine. And what might
happen to the leadership of that party if it lost the general election? And how
would our own supporters, and the branch network, feel if – because of a deal –
they had stood down candidates and not campaigned in the general election? Our
ex-Labour supporters would be furious if we did a deal with the Conservatives;
our ex-Conservative supporters would be livid if we did a
deal with Labour; and we would be stark raving mad to do a deal with the
illiberal and anti-democratic LibDems.
In my
view UKIP must never, in any sphere, be a party of appeasement and compromise.
We must not appease the other parties in any way; we must not compromise our
position for illusory and short-term electoral ‘gains’.
No, we
must present the case for withdrawal – knowledgeably, in detail, and with
sincerity and conviction – until we secure the full independence of our country
from the European Union.
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