“It is impossible for Britain to accept the principle, that the most economic forces of this country should be handed over to an authority that is utterly undemocratic and is responsible to nobody”
Clement Attlee, 1950
“Europe's nations should be guided towards a superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to a federation.”
Jean Monet, (a founder of the EU)
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Brexit was predictable
Speaking in Northern Ireland in January 1971, Enoch Powell said this:
“That is the question. That is the real debate is about. In this, each must speak for himself. For myself, I say that to me it is inconceivable that the people of this nation could or would so identify themselves politically with the people of the continent of western Europe to form with them on entity and in effect one nation.”
No referendum was held under prime minister Edward Heath when Britain agreed to the accession treaty in 1972. Under the premiership of Harold Wilson, a referendum after fresh negotiations was called in April 1975 and held on the 5th June. On the right, and the left of the Labour party there were those who opposed staying in. The mood of this group was well captured by Barbara Castle’s memorable words during the campaign: “They lured us into the market with the mirage of the market miracle.” The remainers won.
Recovering our sovereignty
Initially in 1961-62, Powell was not an opponent of British membership of the European Economic Community as the EU was called then. Only as time passed and he saw that something very different from a free trade area was envisaged, only then did he see that in his first assessment he had been grossly mistaken. In the same speech in Northern Ireland he said,
“The European Economic Community, despite its name, is political; and the question of British membership is a political question.”
He went on to forecast the introduction of the Euro and the ERM.
“There has to be in effect one currency for the whole Community, whether it is a new common currency or whether the existing currencies become automatically interchangeable at permanently fixed rates.”
Political union was from the outset the stated aim of the Treaty of Rome and Powell speaking in Smethwick, West Midlands in September, 1969, he made clear that he understood this.
“The precondition for any political unity is the subordination of the parts to the whole. Short of force, this can only come about through a settled, deep instinctive conviction felt by those concerned that they belong first and foremost to the whole and that its interests override those of the parts. Unless and until this conviction exists, democratic or representative institutions are unworkable. On the other hand, without such institutions, the acts of sovereignty which a political unit must perform on behalf of all its members and which must bind all its members, would be intolerable and unacceptable.”
These insights should have served as a warning against ever being a part of this now utterly discredited and failing monster.
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“Britain could not be an ordinary member of a federal union limited to Europe in any period which can…be foreseen” Winston Churchill