The European question has always been about who governs this country. In fact, it has always been the British question.
It is about our sovereignty, our democracy and our self-government. It is also about our system of government, and the making of laws in a democratically elected parliament, in accordance with the wishes of the British voters, and not by the overriding majority vote of other countries in the Council of Ministers. The manner in which those laws are made behind closed doors and without even a transcript (unlike our parliamentary proceedings, which are recorded daily in Hansard) is in itself a primary reason for our leaving the European Union. The European Union is undemocratic and cannot be reformed from within, because the changes that are needed go too deep and mean tearing up the centralising principles upon which the European Treaties themselves are based. For some countries there is simply too much political and economic power at stake.
Our entry into the European Union, which only passed the House of Commons by eight votes in 1972, was based on what increasingly became a mistaken episode in our national history. We abdicated our sovereignty for what became an illusory role. When the US Democrat Dean Acheson made his observation in 1962 that “Britain…has lost an Empire and not yet found a role”, what is forgotten is that he then went on to say that the answer for him was for us to become integrated in the European institutions. Furthermore in the previous decade, Jean Monnet had created the first concrete prototype of a supranational European structure in the European Coal Steel Community for the benefit of Germany and France.
Con O’Neill, who was the Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom on our entry to the EU, subsequently indicated that the failure to understand what this legal structure really meant politically was one of the greatest mistakes made by the UK. Monnet himself stated that “the united states of Europe is not merely the great hope, but the urgent need of our time – a federated Europe is essential – it is essential to wipe out the boundaries between the nations of Europe. We must pursue the creation – of a united Europe.”
The present tensions within the European Union have not diverted the aspirations of those who are still determined on such political integration. Indeed, in a recent television documentary, an inner EU team could be seen pumping the air and boasting that they had ensured that we would leave on their “terms and conditions”, that they had finally turned us into a colony, and that “this was our plan from the first moment”. Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party will show that they were sadly mistaken.
The British voters, in the Referendum and the General Election, have conclusively decided that they will govern themselves. This is a decisive rejection of the constitutional and undemocratic quagmire in which Europe has become ensnared. Voters all over Europe are increasingly voting with their feet as they see growth stalling and youth and other unemployment escalating.
The British people twice made the decision to leave, despite the false predictions of project fear, and the paralysis in our parliamentary system generated by the recalcitrant remainers from all parties in our last parliament. This decision is a massive tribute to the British people.
When the history of this is written, it will be seen that it was the political common sense of the British voters combined with decisions made in Parliament that determined the outcome. This was driven by the relentless campaign above all by Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party over decades, with a handful of Labour MPs, and then under Boris Johnson. As the Daily Telegraph said in their Leader on Friday, it was their reasoned arguments which prevailed, and persuaded the British electorate. Of course, there are those outside the Conservative Party who are generating the myth that it was all their doing, but history will tell a different story, as is already clear from the percentage of votes cast in the General Election by the different political parties.
We now move on to the next stage of negotiations. Let it be crystal clear that, unlike under the previous administration, Boris Johnson’s government will not capitulate nor is legally bound to capitulate to the terms and conditions set by the European Union as Article 288 of the treaty clearly shows. And we cannot allow the EU to insist that we are unable to benefit from, or be competitive outside the European Union. We must be allowed to diverge as necessary. This is Boris Johnson’s Churchill moment.
Let it be crystal clear: unlike the previous administration, Boris Johnson’s government will not capitulate