Written by James Brunton
Breaking news from Ireland— it’s the death knell of democracy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about and feel like it won’t affect you; don’t worry you’re in a similar boat to parts of Europe. The Treaty of Lisbon drew closer to ratification on Oct. 2, with Ireland voting “yes” in a referendum. This came just a year after their outright rejection of it in a similar poll. An English politician, Nigel Farage, has said that the Treaty of Lisbon “represents the biggest threat to our sovereignty since 1066.”
A clear sign of the disregard for democracy currently being shown by the European Union is the existence of the Treaty of Lisbon itself. In May and June 2005 the Dutch and French held referendums on the EU Constitution— the voters firmly rejected this. Yet rather than the ideas being dropped—Which, given the voters’ reaction, seems logical— the Treaty of Lisbon was written as a replacement. This was then rejected again, this time by Irish voters. Previous even to this, the Treaty of Maastricht, which created the EU, was voted down by the Danish, who were then rode roughshod over.
Now to look past the thick mist of deception that has been created by Europhiles to the stark reality: All that stands between a European superstate, with national sovereignty ceded and eroded even further than they are currently, are the Czech Republic and Poland. A group of Czech politicians have lodged the second in a series of appeals with their country’s highest court to try to legally block the route to ratification. The first appeal was dealt with in five months, but this suit is deliberately much broader, as they aren’t looking for a constitutional ruling as much as they are buying time. For time is what is desperately needed to slay this behemoth state in the works. For time is something that a dour Scot (and British Prime Minister) named Gordon Brown is quickly running out of. Following in a certain Tony Blair’s footsteps, he has managed to finish what Blair started – overseeing the sinking of a doomed ship, that of British sovereignty. Gordon Brown’s much-maligned leadership has almost run its course, but this captain appears to want to go down with his ship, and delay the inevitable so he can claim our participation in this EU shambles as part of his legacy.
The Tories seem ready to govern, and the country is desperate for change, yet no election will be forthcoming until the last possible second. The reason? Tory leader David Cameron has promised to fulfill Labour’s pledge of a referendum on the treaty. This shocks and shames the Labour government, so they want the treaty to pass first— making a referendum much more problematic, as a “no” vote could mean extrication from the EU as a whole—something which is not seen as politically or logistically viable.
So far the only relevance to your life would seem to be vacations—but spare a thought for my homeland. Spare a thought (and a prayer) that your one main ally in Europe can stand strong—after all, part of the treaty is a single foreign policy, and how do you think the French will vote? Or the Germans? The U.S. probably would have been alone in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing the difficulty of the mission there and the condemnation from a world resistant to what it sees as thinly veiled American imperialism.
If these haven’t grabbed your attention, maybe this will. The EU began as just a common market, seemingly harmless. Yet over time this has grown into a grab at power and national sovereignty. The EU, if it had started five years ago, could have failed by now—it is only by lucky timing that it began and grew during prosperous years, and after all correlation is not causation. But part of this common market was a customs union, which sounds spuriously close to the “trade bloc” that is NAFTA. “An impossible connection, and certainly it wouldn’t progress like the EU,” I hear you say. Did Margaret Thatcher ever envision this? Only one person I’ve read of has – Labour leaderHugh Gaitskell in 1962.So the links seem tenuous, the odds even worse than that of getting the jackpot on the Arkansas lottery, but be wary and hope and pray. Pray for a bastion of freedom, and that Britain doesn’t succumb to this inglorious attempt to steal part of our shared heritage, a history of sovereignty that spans over a thousand years—or America could wake up one morning alone, isolated and vulnerable. If we are allowed to fall, who will be left to stand up and protect you?
