WE are celebrating at TCW today. Nothing could have better symbolised the significance of this day, January 31, in Britain’s Battle for Brexit than watching our MEPs packing their bags in Brussels for the last time after more than 40 years of participating in this farcical pretence of democracy.
It is worth remembering since those first meaningless EU Parliament elections in 1979 the succession of European Treaties – Single European Act, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon – imposing laws on our country without discussion in Parliament and over which we have had no say and which have overriden any conflicting decisions of the national Parliaments. There are 180,000 pages to prove it.
It is surely clear, Sir Roger Scruton wrote in Where We Are – the State of Britain Now, ‘that legislation issuing from a Treaty . . . not legislation issuing uniquely from our elected representatives . . . decisions made through plebiscite are not decisions of Parliament’.
Jean-Claude Juncker made that crystal clear when he said ‘there can be no democratic choice against the European Treaties’. An activist Court of Justice empowered to interpret all laws passed under them in the interests of the ultimate goal of political union ensured it.
Had that been understood in 1975, would there have been such overwhelming support for entry? That, not 2016, was the referendum into which the British people went ignorant and blind; blind both to what it would mean and to the intentions of the founders. No wonder that in the intervening years, as our politicians have failed to stand up for our nation, trust in them has evaporated accordingly.
In 2016, for the first time the people were allowed to speak – and they did.
We are however under no illusions. This is just the end of the beginning.
The job of Brexit watching is by no means done. The BrexitCentral website is shutting up shop today. Arguably, without such critical commentary and as on our own TCW platform, we might have been living Mrs May’s WA now and shackled to an endless transition at the mercy of the EU and ECJ.
But it would be beyond foolish to think we are in the clear. Apart from the fact that today really ought to be called ‘Transition Day’, there are many signs already out there that dithering Boris might not get Brexit done, and that he is ‘Blair in Tory’s clothing’ as Professor Bruce Newsome argued in TCW yesterday. And though we hate to put a damper on proceedings, we’d be less than honest to say we are not worried.
That is why we warmly invite all concerned BrexitCentral readers and contributors to The Conservative Woman‘s website where we will be continuing our vigilance on the process. Our Brexit Watch strand will not just continue but be enhanced, starting this weekend.
