“A doomed marriage:Britain and Europe” by Dan Hannan

 

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  I picked this book upĀ this evening Ā and could not put it down until I had read it all. It deals elegantly and comprehensively withĀ why the UK cannot put up with the current relationship with the EU. It sets out why Europhiles think as they do, and how damaging an integrated EU is to UK interests. Ā He charts how a managed market and customs union is not the same as a free market, how the agricultural and fishing policies damaged the UK, how we have contributed too much in cash and had a bad deal on trade. He explains how the EU governors have plenty of interest in perpetuating their system, and how early idealism has been lost. He reinforces an argument we have often set out here, that the rest of the EU would not be able to retaliate against us and would see they have more to lose than us from UK withdrawal from their political and economic Ā union.

72 Comments

  1. lifelogic
    August 14, 2012

    Indeed – but alas your party is led by Cameron (who lost the election is thus stuck with Clegg) and clearly is a green tosh, socialist, Europhile in his very DNA. The party is also full of career politicians, with no real beliefs beyond those of how to keep the party whip and can I get some green or other “consultancy” income, a EURO job/pension and what is in it for me personally alas.

    1. lifelogic
      August 14, 2012

      Ā£12 on Amazon and not available on kindle – I am sure I would agree with it all fully – but it seems a lot to pay – just to be further depressed about the UK/EU situation for a couple of hours.

    2. Timaction
      August 15, 2012

      True. People need to take a quick look at the salaries and pensions of the EU officialdom and see how they coin it with our taxes (stopeuprofiteers).
      That’s why Mr Clegg is so keen on his next job in the EU. No interview or qualifications needed!
      The EU is a parasite with no benefits for the UK whatsoever, just control and issue of directives to make us uncompetitive with the rest of the world. We only need trade and friendship and its time the mainstream parties realised the games up.
      Nigel Farage is interviewed on Fox News today in another brilliant interview. I’m sure that won’t feature as a report on the BBC!!

  2. Kevin R. Lohse
    August 14, 2012

    For those interested, It’s on Amazon books.

    1. alan jutson
      August 15, 2012

      Kevin

      Features in the Daily Mail as well I noticed, starting today.

  3. Brian Tomkinson
    August 14, 2012

    When are we leaving? Oh I forgot, your leader wants the UK to remain in the EU and so won’t permit even an In/Out referendum. How long can you and Hannan keep up this duality – advocating leaving the EU whilst supporting a party with a leadership determined to keep the status quo?

    1. APL
      August 15, 2012

      Brian Tomkinson: “Oh I forgot, your leader wants the UK to remain in the EU .. ”

      So does John Redwood!

      Reply: I voted to come out!

      1. APL
        August 15, 2012

        JR: “I voted to come out.”

        So you did Mr Redwood. But since then, you appear to have changed your mind, saying on this blog you want to renegotiate a new relationship (one that isn’t on offer) with the EU.

        Reply: I have said we should negotiate and then decide – if there is nothing worth having on offer then the voters vote to leave. If you had a Parliament that would just vote us out, the government would still need to negotiate the consequentials affecting the various bilateral relationships with the EU and its memebrs.

        1. Jon Burgess
          August 15, 2012

          But we all know what would happen in this scenario – renegotiation would go swimmingly and there would be every reason to keep the status quo. It would only be evident in the decades that followed that there had in fact been nothing on offer, it’s just that it wouldn’t be presented in that way by the politicians. I’m sorry but it’s in or out only that I want and I won’t give up until I get it.

          1. Timaction
            August 15, 2012

            …………….moreover, none of us should vote for the mainstream parties again until we get the in/out referendum. The EU does NOT repatriate powers. Hannan is quite clear on that. Just sneaky incremental, stealthy power grab for self interested undemocratic parasites. The only beneficiaries are the creation of more politicians that we don’t want or need. A bit like Police Commissioners really or devolved Governments except for England, and Majors, the list goes on…..

        2. Jerry
          August 15, 2012

          To pre-announce ones negotiating position, as Mr Cameron has done, is like sitting down to a game of poker showing all your cards to the other players!

          1. lifelogic
            August 16, 2012

            Or like Brown saying he was to sell the UK gold reserves before he did so.

          2. Kevin Dabson
            August 17, 2012

            Lifelogic,

            There must of been a reason Brown done this presumably to knock down the gold price delibrately. It was not as Brown claimed at the time to get euro’s or to change the BoE spectrum of currency reserves. As surely the pre euro currencies the BoE held would just have been re demonitated to euro’s.

            John would have a better idea about this as a former Rothschild banker or maybe it’s all to do with Investment banks/derivatives.

            Best Regards

            Kevin

            Reply: I seem to remember Brown did buy Euros and said he wanted to diversify the reserves into Euros!

  4. zorro
    August 14, 2012

    John, it’s all true and pretty self evident to those of us who have looked into the facts of our relationship with Europe……However, uanime5 would not agree……..

    He seems to think that the EU countries are not dependent on trading with the UK even if the UK has a trade deficit with the EU as a whole. This is an interesting argument for someone who seems to believe in the inevitability of one country called Europe coming into being…..Perhaps he will accept our view then, or maybe not.

    Maybe some of the smaller countries are not so dependent on trade with the UK, but France and Germany certainly trade with the UK and wish to continue to do so. Indeed, they would be loathe to jeopardise this export market…..and what France and Germany wants counts for something in the EU I think!

    zorro

    1. uanime5
      August 15, 2012

      Given that 53% of the UK’s exports go to the EU but there’s isn’t a single EU country that sells 53% or more of its exports to the UK it’s clear that no EU country is as dependent on the UK as the UK is dependent on the EU.

      Regarding France and Germany according to the CIA 6.2% of Germany’s exports and 6.7% of France’s exports go to the UK; while the UK exports 11.6% of their exports to Germany and 7.8% of their exports to France. So the UK will suffer far more than Germany or France it trade ceases.

      https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2050.html

      In summary having a huge trade deficit doesn’t mean the UK is important to the EU.

  5. uanime5
    August 14, 2012

    He explains how the EU governors have plenty of interest in perpetuating their system

    Which country do these governors come from? Also which countries benefit most because of the actions of these governors?

    1. Jerry
      August 15, 2012

      “uanime5”, it’s more often self interest, many a Eurocrat has failed as a politician in his or her own country and then goes to the EU to find their personal political ‘Damascus’. This is one reason why these Eurocrats so dislike elections, if the EU was actually democratic there would have been no reason why Eurocrats like HvR and JMB could not be directly elected by the people, but for the fact that neither are likely to actually get elected via a free and fare vote…

      Oh and yes, Mr Farage was so very rude to HvR, but then the truth does often sting!

      1. Christopher Ekstrom
        August 15, 2012

        “Rude”. How low the stakes are in your estimation. Just the end of England, after all. Mr. Redwood’s misleader is a Traitor. To his party; but most grievously to England. Why? Shallow opportunism most likely but perhaps his motives are more sinester. It does not matter much. Cast Iron is utterly compromised. How & why does Mr. Redwood remain loyal to this despicable creature?
        Mr. Hannan is a fine speaker who has been eloquent in warning Americans about the road to serfdom that the UK has been jogging down…

  6. Vanessa
    August 14, 2012

    John
    You should read “The Great Deception” by North and Booker, it is a comprehensive history of the European Union from its beginnings in the 1920s up to 2003 when the book was published. The British governments of all colours have been humiliated and lied to and to “make these people like us” they have given away valuable industries etc. It is so depressing that we are still in this corrupt and dishonest “club” with no government having the guts to stand up for Britain and get us out. All the “benefits” we gain from membership we could have with trade agreements outside.

    1. A different Simon
      August 15, 2012

      “The British governments of all colours have been humiliated and lied to and to ā€œmake these people like usā€ they have given away valuable industries etc.”

      Sorry but to claim that our treasonous politicians are somehow victims is as ridiculous as the belief held by large parts of the electorate that “the Conservative party is Eurosceptic ” .

      Both claims conveniently deny overwhelming factual evidence .

    2. uanime5
      August 15, 2012

      I thought fore-runner to the European Union was created after WW2 to prevent another European war. What was the EU called between 1920 and 1945?

  7. Antisthenes
    August 14, 2012

    And of course everybody conveniently forgets the Rotterdam anomaly; goods exported from the UK to markets outside the EU that goes through Rotterdam are counted as exports to the EU. So in reality the exports to the EU are somewhat less than official figures show.

    1. lifelogic
      August 15, 2012

      Also the trade with Southern Ireland which we have had for donkeys years.

    2. zorro
      August 15, 2012

      I have pointed out the stats on this before on the blog.

      zorro

  8. Nina Andreeva
    August 14, 2012

    Dave really makes me laugh on this one. He says that we cannot withdraw/agree to better terms because we need to export to the EU if the economy is going to get better. Well who is exactly going to buy our stuff, the PIGS surely not? So its really down to the Germans.

    I like to play an interesting game with my German friends. I tell them I can buy loads of German stuff in the UK from Haribo sweets, Bahlsen biscuits, Nivea, to Pritt sticks and a Merc if I could afford one. EON and RWE also supply a lot electricity at rip off prices in the UK too. However I ask them when did they last buy British? They usually come up with BP (mostly US owned ), Shell (sorry Anglo Dutch), Lipton tea (Unilever, Anglo Dutch again) and after that they are really scratching their heads. So what is Dave on about because I do not see what Europeans are buying to begin with? I hope the answer is not financial services from the part nationalised banks that would really make me laugh!

    1. Christopher Ekstrom
      August 15, 2012

      Well said! Our future is East. India & China.

  9. Matthew
    August 15, 2012

    Mr Hannan is very impressive ā€“ I would like to see him in Westminster, where he would get more exposure, rather than in the European Parliament.
    He gets his argument across well, this is needed to counteract the pro EU points of, 3 million jobs at risk, and Wars …so on.

    1. A.Sedgwick
      August 15, 2012

      Could be the first UKIP elected MP if he took the risk!

    2. Bob
      August 15, 2012

      @Matthew
      “He gets his argument across well…”

      To an audience of about three.

      It’s an illusion, Cameron allows people like Dan, Douglas and our esteemed host to make some EU sceptic noise to give the party a veneer of conservatism, but in reality the Tories are very much in favour of maintaining the status quo as far as the EU is concerned.

      The use of the three line whip at the referendum debate should tell you what you need to know.

      Nigel Farage has challenged Cameron to a debate on the EU, but Dave chickened out.

      A vote for LibLabatory is a vote for the abolition of britain.

      1. Christopher Ekstrom
        August 15, 2012

        The abolition of the UK will trigger an English Great Awakening; around that time SamCam better be on a boat to France.

    3. Single Acts
      August 15, 2012

      With the central party imposing candidates, I think Mr Hannan in Westminster is perhaps less likely.

      Too bad he doesn’t write crappy romantic books ~ he’d be shoe-in.

      1. Jerry
        August 15, 2012

        Is Mr Hannan actually eligible to be a British MP? Genuine question.

  10. Duyfken
    August 15, 2012

    I am yet to read it but have thoroughly devoured his summarising article in the DM this morning, and have sent it to all of my long-suffering cyberspace correspondents. A book which deserves all the plugging it can get, and now I’ll be on to Amazon toute suite.

  11. David
    August 15, 2012

    From a recent ā€œThoughts from the FrontlIneā€:

    ā€¦ Mario Monti gave an interview to Der Spiegel, ā€¦ It would have gone unnoticed except for one little item. The Italian prime minister suggested that the heads of the EU national governments make decisions independently from their countriesā€™ parliaments. ā€œIf the governments are tied by their parliamentsā€™ decisions, the lack of freedom of action will result in Europeā€™s breakdown, rather than deeper integration ā€¦ā€

    I found this particularly chilling.

    1. A different Simon
      August 15, 2012

      Thanks for that extract , it kind of sums up the EU for me .

      They all believe that the ends justify the means and when push comes to shove are prepared to use whatever means they deem expedient .

      As this article shows , they no longer feel they need to conceal it .

      Tony Blair certainly subscribed to that and I think Dave does too but if I was an EU powerbroker I’d view Dave as lilly livered and flaky .

      It’s a pity that someone competent and capable like Monti who is doing many of the right things is keen to resort to dictatorship .

    2. Christopher Ekstrom
      August 15, 2012

      Indeed: Monte was not properly elected. Serfs have no vote. That’s why UKIP exists.

      1. Jerry
        August 15, 2012

        Monte wasn’t elected at all, never mind properly! First invited to be PM and then appointed as a senator (for life) so that he could be made PM to lead the government of technocrats.

  12. Leslie Singleton
    August 15, 2012

    Though I have all the time in the world for Mr Hannan, wholeheartedly believe we can and should leave the EU ASAP and furthermore that it would be in our interests to do so, I do not go along with this business of much importance attaching to their having more to lose than us. Put that to them and they will, rightly from their point of view, respond with derision (though I hope I am wrong).

    The problem is that although they would indeed stand to lose more than us, the amount they would lose is nowhere near big enough to shift them, this because of the deep psychological (psychopathic?) reasoning at the heart of the EU experiment–their hatred of America, the uniformity they crave across the Continent not to mention the pervading French (so gracious on the Olympics) fear of the Germans and the Germans’ fear of themselves.

    For all I know, Hawaii once had or has a similar position vis a vis the rest of America but that didn’t stop Washington ruling the roost over them.

    If we tried to make play on such a small and putative disbenefit to the EU, they would call our bluff and not budge.

    We do not want what is on offer (and that’s even if they can turn around the present fiasco–unlikely because Spain and Italy will never happily agree to the humiliation necessary) so we have to get out. Unilateral abrogation now is WTG.

    And it is or should be a factor that getting out would presumably make it harder for Scotland to ruin the UK even further–that’s where our priorities should lie–much harder for Scotland if they have to export through a non-EU member. Eat your heart out Mr Salmond.

    1. Alan Wheatley
      August 15, 2012

      I think the trade issue, as rightly explained here and elsewhere, is not so much a justification for leaving as to negate the argument that we should not leave.

  13. alan jutson
    August 15, 2012

    John

    Many of us have seen some of Dan’s speeches within the EU, and read some of his blogs.

    Given he is a Conservative EU MP does he ever get to outline his views to the Government or Cameron direct ?

    If not, then why does he operate as a Conservative MEP ?

    If he does, why is no notice taken of his views ?

    If Cameron does not trust the infomation he is being given from Hannan, why is he allowed to continue ?

    None of this makes any democratic or indeed commonsense.

    Do you have any answers to the above. ?

    Reply Yes he does set out his views to senior Conservatives. The party does not yet have the power to make everyone think the same!

    1. alan jutson
      August 15, 2012

      Just remember John

      Just like a Company that is in trouble or gone bust.

      Once you get a real look at the Accounts, it is always, but always, worse than originally reported or thought.

      Indeed often you wonder how it survived for so long.

      Thus will eventually the truth will out.

      Let us hope it will not be too long.

    2. zorro
      August 15, 2012

      Reply to reply – I am sure DC is working on that…..

      zorro

    3. alan jutson
      August 15, 2012

      reply -reply

      Surely its not a question of power its as simple as :

      Does Mr Cameron believe him ?.

      If he does, surely he then makes it Party policy, and all of the cardboard cut outs vote for it, along with the Eurosceptics in all Party’s.

      If he does belive him he sacks him.

      1. alan jutson
        August 15, 2012

        OOps should have been:

        If he does not believe him, he sacks him.

    4. Russ
      August 15, 2012

      Reply Yes he does set out his views to senior Conservatives. The party does not yet have the power to make everyone think the same!

      Does the Party have the power to elect a leader that thinks the same as the majority of small ‘c’ conservative voters?

      1. Alan Wheatley
        August 15, 2012

        I do not think it is so much the “power” as there being a suitable candidate.

  14. Tad Davison
    August 15, 2012

    These pro-EU people make me Tom and Dick. I have challenged the local Lib Dem MP, Julian Huppert, to tell me how the EU has been to this nation’s benefit, and he has consistently failed to do so. He won’t even allow his position to be challenged in an open debate. That is a very dangerous precept for an elected politician, yet he likes to come across as being anti-facist and pro-democracy. I venture that Clegg is pretty much the same, and that goes for Ed Moribund too, but I really have to scratch my head whenever I listen to Cameron.

    There is so much incontrovertible evidence out there, as to make any pro-European arguments fall down flat, so why do they persist with what Heath started, which has proven so unwieldily and unworkable?

    If only we had the answer to that one! We might then make real progress and get out of the cursed place altogether, but there’s nothing quite like obstinacy, intransigence, and clinging to an impossible pipedream, to bar a nation’s progress.

    Tad Davison

    Cambridge

    1. Bob
      August 15, 2012

      @Tad
      All three major political parties are in agreement regarding the EU, so what would they gain from engaging in debate with you.

      Cameron received an invitation from Nigel Farage to debate the issue and declined it.

      You can call me a tin foil hat conspiracist, but the one world government theory fits well with all that’s going on.

      If you haven’t read Watermelons yet, I highly recommend that you do.

      1. Leslie Singleton
        August 15, 2012

        I did not know that Cameron had declined debate with Farage. Yet he agreed, catastrophically, to include Clegg in public debate not too long ago (possibly the biggest mistake, ever, seeing the consequences).

    2. Alan Wheatley
      August 15, 2012

      Tad, as to persisting, I think we should be looking for the power behind the throne.

  15. Alan Wheatley
    August 15, 2012

    Well done Dan, and thank you John for drawing our attention to his book.

    This is but one of many publications on the same theme, some of them free if you belong to the right organisation. The more the merrier – the argument can not be made too often.

    But the argument should be expanded beyond a comparison of the UK/EU relationship before and after membership. There is a whole World out there. Britain became the dominant nation on the back of World trade. If we could manage that in the days of sail then we should be able to do at least as well in these days modern communications.

    The Commonwealth has potential so far hardly exploited; all Commonwealth countries can benefit.

    Reply Dan makes this case as well. I have regularly argued that the UK shackled itself to the wrong grouping when you look at relative growth rates.

    1. Duyfken
      August 15, 2012

      As one from the Commonwealth, I too deprecate the way the UK ditched the Commonwealth to pursue an apparently more attractive proposition across the Channel. But perhaps it may now present an opportunity, because were UK to return to the fold, it would be on more realistic terms with neither the unsustainable role of leader nor with the trappings of a colonial power.

      1. A.Sedgwick
        August 15, 2012

        Agreed.

      2. Leslie Singleton
        August 15, 2012

        To Duyfken. It was by no means all one way. I still cannot believe Australia changing to the Australian DOLLAR and this not too long after Sir Robert Menzies trying to gain favour for the ROYAL.

        1. Duyfken
          August 16, 2012

          Ole Pig-Iron Bob was a great supporter of the Crown and a great politician too. But ROYAL would have been a disaster. I don’t know why they did not plump for the POUND, but it may have been in the days when Labor were in power. Also, there is or was a significant section of the public (eg a number of Irish descendants) which nurses/d some grievance against Blighty.

          1. Duyfken
            August 16, 2012

            My correction: decimalisation came in 1966 when Harold Holt (Lib) had succeeded Menzies. The ROYAL was just too unpopular a name and the $ was adopted almost by default.

  16. Denis Cooper
    August 15, 2012

    “It sets out why Europhiles think as they do, and how damaging an integrated EU is to UK interests.”

    Well, we have Osborne urging the eurozone states to get on and integrate further to keep the present eurozone intact, not in our long term interests or for that matter in the long term interests of many of those eurozone states.

    And we have Cameron agreeing to a radical EU treaty change ostensibly intended to stabilise the present eurozone, but without demanding other EU treaty changes to make it possible for some of the present eurozone members to withdraw from it in an orderly fashion while staying within the EU, or even to limit the future growth of the eurozone should it survive, and urging further EU enlargement while agreeing that all new EU member states must also join the euro some years later, and refusing even to consider whether we should leave the EU before we are put in an increasingly minoritised position unless we also adopt its currency, not in our long term interests.

    And we have Hague promising that he would pass a law so that we would always have referendums on EU treaty changes, apparently, as presented to and understood by the general public, but then making first use of that new law to deny us the opportunity to pass our own judgement on that one-sided deal struck by Cameron on March 25th 2011, and then making second use of that new law to deny us a referendum on whether we want Croatia to join the EU and then later join the euro so that it can line up against us in the highly federalised eurozone bloc that Osborne wants to see created.

    And we have Lidington as Europe Minister playing the role of Squealer in “Animal Farm”, explaining to the lesser animals why these wise actions by the leaders are all for the best …

    http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=669465982&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+FcoLatestNewsRssFeed+%2528FCO+Latest+News+RSS+feed%2529

    “13 October 2011

    Minister for Europe David Lidington explains why the first use of the European Union Act 2011 does not require a referendum in the UK.”

    And the Bill to approve that radical EU treaty change, without a referendum, will have its second reading in the Commons on September 3rd, when hopefully at least some MPs will question whether Cameron has got a good deal for us, and propose that in line with the spirit of the Tory election promise we should be allowed to make up our own minds on that through a referendum.

    And an e-petition calling for just such a referendum is here:

    http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33825

    for those who are interested.

    1. outsider
      August 15, 2012

      As I am sure you know Mr Cooper, all this stems ineluctably from the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. If the Maastricht Treaty had been a separate treaty for those countries wanting and qualifying to join a currency union, instead of being an EU Treaty with obligations on members but a special UK opt-out, then the eurozone, the EU and Britain’s relations with both would all be in a better place. And that is solely the result of weak UK diplomacy within Europe. So nothing new.

      1. Denis Cooper
        August 15, 2012

        That’s how I see it as well; part of the poison pill legacy Major left behind.

  17. Neil Craig
    August 15, 2012

    I agree with you about the reporting opn the state owned C$ News last night. Looking at the state owned BBC ceefax “in depth” report this morning on why rail fares are going up it was even more lamentable. Lots about how they count inflation 2 ways and absolutely nothing about the technical issues.

    This is typical of Britain’s state controlled media. There is no question that our railways are far more expensive to run than other countries and a total media silence on the issue – just as there is total media censorship of the fact that our public construction projects are all at least 8 times more expensive than in the rest of the world or, after adjusting for inflation, they used to be here.

    My guess is that it is due to the enormous weight of state parasitic rules they have to work under and number of state parasites employed enforcing them. This is something which in a free society would be a major subject of political debate – but not here.

    Even without the technical modernisation I have previously proposed it must be obvious that it would be possible for British rail to be as efficient as the rest of the world manages.

  18. Graham Hamblin
    August 15, 2012

    You read Hannan’s book in a night, maybe you should also read Enoch at 100? It’s all there and I am surprised there was no contribution from you!

    There is only one way out of the EU and that is the day the Forces of the Crown march into the Westminster Monkey pen, for that is what it is, and take over. Had there been a threat of a communist government in the 1960’s that is what they would have done and that is what they should do now?

    1. Leslie Singleton
      August 15, 2012

      Mr Hamblin–Good idea, we need a latter-day Colonel Pride to carry out a Purge.

  19. Anne Palmer
    August 15, 2012

    Sadly, the people are getting very angry, not just here in the UK but in other Countries too. This Government can be the savior of this Country or it can be the last Government either way. Especially as the people know without doubt Governments have gone far to far in signing EU Treaties that should never have been signed at all.

    To destroy our Constitution is indeed Treason, yet when I read from a top EU Lawyer that “it must be recalled that Union Law prevails over national law, including national constitutional law” exactly what are we all to think? What have British Government’s done over the years?

    1. Jon burgess
      August 15, 2012

      Given away our freedom to choose who makes our laws, surrendered the primacy of Westminster to a foreign power, forced the Queen to contradict her coronation oath and all but destroyed Great Britain & Northern Ireland as an independent nation without our consent! – that’s what. For that they should all be strung up –
      but luckily Bliar had the penalty for treason downgraded from hanging in 1998(?) – maybe he was particularly worried about something?

  20. Barbara Stevens
    August 15, 2012

    This book is the perfect Christmas present to all the doubters who say we should remain within this terrible expensive club. Now they may not have the intelligence to understand its finer points, but it’s worth a try. Hannan as expressed himself very well inside the EU and here, indeed in many parts of the world, and been received well. How is it that he does not have a seat here in our parliament? Is it that the Conservatives are afraid of such an intelligent being within their ranks? Indeed, he would muster great support if he were in the country.
    May be its time central headquarters of the Conservative party got their heads together and gathered all who sing to the same song sheet together, before its to late and the party disintergrates altogether. Its happening at great speed before their eyes; membership down. Don’t panic Mr Mannering alls safe, as if it was.

  21. rose
    August 15, 2012

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9475479/Heres-how-we-counter-the-BBCs-liberal-bias.html

    Well written observation by Mr Hannan on BBC bias: to which I would presume to add that the whole Bubble suffers from this Bias, including the Telegraph and Spectator. I is indeed cultural, not just political.

  22. Trevor Butler
    August 15, 2012

    Simple solution – Announce the UK’s impending withdrawal from the EU and see if the people take to the streets in their millions to demonstrate against it…Some how I don’t think that the demonstrations would happen.
    In the spirit of fairness the government could then offer free, one way, Euro Star tickets to those who wanted to remain in their beloved EU.

  23. Electro-Kevin
    August 15, 2012

    Decent newspapers might buy the rights to serialise this worthy tome. In the national interest.

  24. rd
    August 15, 2012

    I always find it heartening to read the replies to these ‘blogs’.

  25. merlin
    August 15, 2012

    Renegotiation with the EU is a fool’s paradise and if you do you will fall into a pre-planned trap. The EU would welcome nothing more than the UK seemingly re-negotiating back powers from the EU and after the renegotiation we would all be told how Britain has managed to get powers back from the EUSSR only to discover that, in fact, it was a total illusion. John, I am surprised that you actually believe that renegotiating powers from the EU is realistically possible. But, I assume you mean that we have to appear to re-negotiate powers, in other words to call their bluff and then have a referendum on in or out. It so reminds me of Neville Chamberlain coming back from Berlin saying peace in our time and we all believed him! How can you negotiate with an entity that at its heart is totalitarian and anti-democratic, its like playing cards with the devil. We should get out now before it is too late! The future likely scenario-in 20 years we will still be talking about leaving and still be in it with even less power than we have now1

    Reply: I am trying to get us a referendum which I would have thought you would like. People who criticise me on this site never explain how they think the UK is sudenly just going to leave the EU when the party that proposes that never wins a single Westminster seat.

    1. Patrick Loaring
      August 16, 2012

      Why is it that politicians tell us that we can have a referendum and then when in power don’t deliver their promise. What is it about the EU that stops politicians in their tracks from delivering what they have promised. When they gain power do they get taken to an “EU place” where they see and are told something that none of us the people who elected them get to see or hear that turns them into EU zombies? I cannot understand why governments meekly step into line with EU dictats. What is it that the commissars in Brussels tell goverments that keep them in line?

      Having read the first part of Daniel Hannan’s book in the Daily Mail it makes chilling reading. What is happening in the EU is also happening in the UK. Who voted for Gay marriage? Who voted for the House of Lords reform with “peers” getting 15 years with no re-election, how can this be democracy?

      I understand one of the reasons the EU was created was to stop the European nations from going to war with one another again. If we consider that the last two World wars in Europe were caused by the ambitions of a small group of people to gain dominence and control of the European continent by non democratic means then we have another manifestation with the EU.

      Will this lead to some kind of uprising across Europe in the future against the undemocratic EU?

    2. Russ
      August 17, 2012

      Reply to Reply:

      “People who criticise me on this site never explain how they think the UK is sudenly just going to leave the EU when the party that proposes that never wins a single Westminster seat.”

      I refer you to my previous post:

      “…elect a leader that thinks the same as the majority of small ā€˜cā€™ conservative voters…”

      Of course UKIP is a minority party, with few confirmed voters, less money and airtime. They face an uphill struggle, because they associated with only one cause, and people know that you need a broad scope of policy to run a country.

      That doesn’t, of course, mean that the majority of the country don’t want their policies on Europe; most people do, and the Conservatives should be the party delivering those policies.

      Sad to say, mainstream political parties have sewn up the stewardship of the country. UKIP may not gather seats, but the fact that they are soon to take third place in the political landscape on a single issue should tell you all you need to know about the country’s appetite for exit from the EU.

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