The anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty signed on 7 February 1992

Enthusiasts for the economic, monetary and political union of Europe will celebrate the anniversary of Maastricht. After the founding Treaty of Rome this Treaty represented the single largest step forward towards the union of Europe they seek. Some Eurosceptics can also celebrate it at this distant time, as it was the sheer ambition of Maastricht that alerted many more people to the fact that the Common market they voted for in 1975 in the UK was morphing into the ever closer union of the Rome Treaty that had been played down in the UK debate.

The truth is this Treaty was important. It both greatly accelerated progress to European Union for the majority of countries that welcomed it, whilst splitting Europe more decisively for those that did not. Denmark and the UK immediately demanded and got opt outs from joining the single currency and stayed out. Sweden has spent the last  years refusing to implement its commitment to join the Euro. The EU has lived with non compliance with the Treaty. Switzerland and Norway took it as confirmation of the growing centralisation of the Union and confirmed their unwillingness to join the EU at all.

Maastricht was the last EU Treaty that the UK Conservative party whipped MPs to support. It split the Parliamentary party, with many more unhappy MPs than actually voted against. In Opposition the party became an opponent of more powers for the EU, and opposed the Treaties of Nice, Amsterdam and Lisbon. In the 2010 election the party was wanting to repatriate powers , but the advent of a coalition government with the Lib Dems meant nothing along those lines could be attempted as the Lib Dems vetoed any suggestion. The 2015 Conservative Manifesto adopted the proposal of a referendum on our continued membership as the best answer. This helped the Conservatives garner enough votes to win a majority.  By then many Conservative MPs felt it wrong to stay in the EU when we opposed joining the most important central project at its heart, economic and monetary union. There was always the danger of ending up paying more of the bills of a difficult currency union, and accepting more of their laws needed for currency participants but not for a more independent country with global ambitions.

Maastricht theory had already cost the UK dear. It was preparing for the single currency by demanding convergence of economies and currencies that visited upon us the Exchange Rate Mechanism. This cruel policy gave us a nasty boom and bust, leading to much unemployment, lost businesses and negative equity for some homeowners. This  bitter experience recruited more Conservative MPs and voters to oppose continued membership and certainly to oppose further transfers of powers.It threw the Conservatives out of power for 13 years as it destroyed the party’s reputation for economic competence. Winning again was only possible after Labour presided over the even worse banking collapse and great depression of 2008.

The post Maastricht EU survives on a massive programme of money printing and bond buying, continuing for all this year on current plans long after the USA and UK have stopped. It needs the continued mechanism of Germany and the other surplus countries depositing their cash in the ECNB at zero interest, to be lent on at zero to the deficit countries that need the money to avoid recession. Gradually the EU is exerting its controls over spending and taxes in each member state, as it needs to do to provide some discipline to its currency and banking system.

118 Comments

  1. Bob Dixon
    February 8, 2022

    Thank goodness we are no longer part of the EU.
    Can we now concentrate on cutting off the remaking tentacles.

    1. lifelogic
      February 8, 2022

      The rather many tentacles and the almost complete attempted strangulation of Northern Ireland.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 8, 2022

        Northern Ireland is prospering beyond any other part of the UK thanks to its membership of the SM and CU.

        Its people voted handsomely Remain.

        They are the lucky few.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 8, 2022

      Some of our workers may disagree.

      The US and Japan have agreed to remove Trump-era tariffs from around 1.25 million metric tonnes a year of Japanese steel imports.

      Under the deal, Japan says it will help to tackle excess steel supplies, which push down prices.

      The agreement is aimed to stamp out “unfair practices” in the global steel industry, which is dominated by China.

      The Biden administration has already made a similar deal with the EU but tariffs remain in place on UK imports.

      We’re out of the game.

      Reply Not so. We are signing lots of trade deals and are advancing with the big one, TPP

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 8, 2022

        Everyone knows that geography is everything.

        Sign what you like with countries literally on the other side of the world – it will never make up for what you have thrown away all around us.

        1. Mark
          February 9, 2022

          We seem to be importing a lot of Chinese made steel jackets and monopole towers for offshore windfarms while our local firms fail to compete.

        2. Peter2
          February 9, 2022

          Odd that China and India export huge amounts into UK, Europe and USA if geography is everything.

        3. Narrow Shoulders
          February 9, 2022

          So why the worry about Japan and the US?

      2. Mark
        February 8, 2022

        Please learn a little about the steel industry.

        https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7317/

        It declined dramatically in the post Maastricht years under the EU, where the old ECSC alliances favoured other countries. Its more recent decline has been promoted by expensive energy and CO2 taxes. I suspect we will see more plant closures because electricity costs are too high for arc furnaces and more profit can be made reselling any UKA allowances than making steel in blast furnaces. The UK is now a bit player in a market dominated by China, who supply over half the world’s steel on the back of cheap coal, coke and electricity, and are the origin of the supply surplus.

        It is interesting that the report to Parliament emphasises how small the steel industry has become relative to the economy and employment. It is clearly a victim of Business Eradication and Industrial Suppression.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 8, 2022

          Irrelevant whether it is true or not.

      3. Bill brown
        February 8, 2022

        Sir JR

        Yes we are signing deals small ones like Aid, NZ, but they are making very little difference in economic terms

        1. Peter2
          February 8, 2022

          Yet total UK exports are doing well.
          Unemployment is low
          Growth better than most G7 nations
          Inflation better that America and very similar to the EU.

    3. Ian Wragg
      February 8, 2022

      They seem reluctant to do anything about the NIP.
      Maybe the civil Serpents like it so it keeps us aligned ready for a Norwegian style membership. Government by fax.

    4. Andy
      February 8, 2022

      There are no remaining tentacles. You left.

      Yes, it really is this crap.

      1. glen cullen
        February 8, 2022

        Are you 100% sure
.maybe Boris didn’t sign the treaty correctly, maybe he had his fingers crossed when he agreed to the oven ready deal

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 8, 2022

        Well, it’s good to see that Johnson’s sense of humour is apparently intact.

        He’s made Rees-Mogg the minister for “brexit opportunities”.

        Has he made one for assessing the aeronautical glide characteristics of grand pianos too?

      3. John Hatfield
        February 8, 2022

        The Withdrawal Agreement is a great big tentacle Andy. Brexit in name only. The ‘crap’ is due to our Remainer government.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 8, 2022

          It was the UK, which grovelled for a deal from the European Union, not the other way around, John.

          They were prepared, with regret, to seal the ports to UK ships, to close the airways to UK flights, and all the rest, if you had got your craved-for No Deal.

          1. glen cullen
            February 8, 2022

            Agree – Our conservative remainer government & civil service did indeed grovel to the EU for deal
..something that wasn’t included in the referendum

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 9, 2022

            I think that there’s a name for people, who seek actively to bring disaster upon their country and its people, e.g. by wilfully self-imposing a near-blockade on it.

            Thank goodness at least that the complete fanatics failed.

          3. Peter2
            February 10, 2022

            Yes I’m also glad Insulate Britain have failed.

      4. John C.
        February 8, 2022

        I wouldn’t describe your comment so frankly.

  2. Mark B
    February 8, 2022

    Good morning.

    In Opposition the party became an opponent of more powers for the EU . . .

    It was tame opposition. Witness its support to Remain.

    . . . many Conservative MPs felt it wrong to stay in the EU . . .

    Many, but not the majority. CMD saw the EU Referendum as a way of putting our membership to bed once and for all and silence Leavers. He was in for a shock.

    I am hearing reports that former aids to Alexander Johnson MP have stated that he regrets BREXIT and that his heart was never in it. Given the man’s personal reputation with regard to matters in his personal life I can well believe this.

    BREXIT For many MP’s, and Civil Serpents, has had the result much like a condemned man with a noose around his neck and the trap door just being opened. That terrible feeling of the ground suddenly disappearing from under you and the fall to what will be your instant demise. Losing ‘Mother EU’ for many has exposed them for the poor quality voting fodder they are. It is so easy to be a rule taker and not a rule maker. To not have to make important decisions and, when things go wrong, just blame someone (EU) else.

    30 Years ? What a waste.

    1. Shirley M
      February 8, 2022

      +1 Mark B. I do not trust Parliament to respect democracy, or the electorate.

    2. Everhopeful
      February 8, 2022

      +1
      Agree entirely.
      And yes, what an awful waste of time and emotion and freedom.
      And we lost our lovely currency. For what?

    3. Dave Andrews
      February 8, 2022

      Governing the UK post EU requires imagination and leadership, so I can understand the PM is having second thoughts.

    4. BOF
      February 8, 2022

      +1. Mark B. We would still be in were it not for Nigel Farage and the 4.3 million+ UKIP votes in the EU election that frightened CMD into keeping his promise of a referendum. About the only manifesto promise he kept. The result did however, call his bluff!

  3. Shirley M
    February 8, 2022

    I still doubt the legality of signing this treaty without the express approval of the electorate. Likewise, the way we were taking into the Common Market without electoral approval. Both events were under Conservative governments! Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by Boris’s dubious antics, appeasement of the EU and lack of consideration for democracy and the electorate.

    1. Mark B
      February 8, 2022

      Shirley

      HM the Queen is Sovereign. That is, she is the ultimate power. When Maastricht came into being, she became just another citizen of the sudo-nation of the EU / Europe. That is High Treason. A crime that, believe it or not, was still punishable by the death penalty back then, but was later removed by the Blair regime. That was the size of the betrayal.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 9, 2022

        Stop being so daft.

    2. Walt
      February 8, 2022

      Thank you, Shirley M. I have similar doubt. In the 1960s and the early 1970s, politicians described the European project as the Common Market, not as a new superstate in the making, which latter was clearly the aim of Robert Schuman et al. A then 16-year old schoolboy knew otherwise, that EFTA and our Commonwealth were by far the better options for our country and did not involve deceiving the electorate.

    3. graham1946
      February 8, 2022

      Shirley.

      As you say, the Tories took us in, passed Maastricht without consulting the voters. Why are you surprised? They are the party of the EU and will get us back in as soon as they can, probably via some associate membership, then full membership. Big business likes the EU for their anti competition policies and the Tories are the party of big business. They don’t care about small people which is why many self employed people desperate for money in the pandemic shutdown were ignored and allowed to go bust while big businesses were feather bedded. Some big businesses not only did not need the help, but were so embarrassed they paid back some of the money they received.

    4. lifelogic
      February 8, 2022

      Cameron even gave us a cast iron promise of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty only to rat on it shortly after with the bogus claim that – Oh a Treaty is no longer a Treaty once ratified – sure Dave. I trust you are enjoying your Greensil Capital “earnings”.

      1. glen cullen
        February 8, 2022

        They said pretty much the same thing about HS2 just before the last election….and suddenly changed their mind immediately after that election

  4. DOM
    February 8, 2022

    I don’t care about this issue. It’s a legacy issue. I care about the odious British Parliament’s Commons MPs passing laws to destroy free speech using offence culture and victim culture to smash into smithereens rights and freedoms we once enjoyed as a result of human sacrifice, courage and bloodshed

    We have nothing without freedom and voice. Leaving the EU has delivered us into a place that is now even more sinister and unpleasant as it was prior to the vote

    Try as you might to destroy dissenting voices the real world will always impose itself and expose the vicious and nasty characters that now infect British and western political and public life.

    We are governed by psychopaths and petty despots

    1. Mark B
      February 8, 2022

      Hear hear.

    2. Everhopeful
      February 8, 2022

      +1
      Sadly, sadly agree 100%.

    3. graham1946
      February 8, 2022

      It may be a legacy issue, but it is all of a piece. Ignoring the public on something as momentous as joining the Common Market, then the EU and finally trying to overturn the referendum result in the rogue parliament is the first and biggest step of the things you are railing against.

      1. Shirley M
        February 8, 2022

        +1 Never to be forgotten, or forgiven.

    4. lifelogic
      February 8, 2022

      Me too.

      Now they want racial pay breakdowns on top of gender in yet more evil and expensive red tape and yet more pointless/damaging government interference.

    5. BOFe
      February 8, 2022

      I agree DOM.
      Police and Crime BILL, Online Harms Bill. Designed to strip us of our freedom and liberty so ‘when/if’ the shameful Corona Virus Act is repealed we will be no better off. We are becoming an autocratic tyranny, like Australia, Canada and N.Zealand.

    6. glen cullen
      February 8, 2022

      ”psychopaths and petty despots” with no honour nor integrity

    7. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 9, 2022

      You have, precisely, what you voted for in the referendum.

      Own it and rejoice.

      You won.

  5. BOF
    February 8, 2022

    You must be wondering Sir John, what happened to all your hard work in getting the UK out of the EU when nothing has been done to compound our independence.

    As you have pointed out many times, Ministers have refused to take advantage. What EU legislation has been repealed? Nil. It is as if our government is happy with the way things were. Are they keeping everything ticking over while our economy weakens, waiting for the right moment to rejoin?

    1. lifelogic
      February 8, 2022

      Is Boris sill really a remainer – like his siblings and father – he surely used to be pro EU. He certainly seems now to be a deluded Climate Alarmist and reluctant to take advantage of brexit. The expensive energy agenda alone will kill the Tories politically. Could well give us Starmer/SNP, a broken union, votes for children, PR and perhaps never a sensible small state government ever again. Such is PR endless lefty/green crap coalitions as we see all over the place.

      1. Mick
        February 8, 2022

        Is Boris sill really a remainer ???
        Unless he pulls is finger out and starts showing some creditable results the tories along with labour will be toast at the next General Election , the people will not be fob off with endless waffle like we got in the late 60s early 70s to enslave us into the dreaded EU/common market

        1. Mick
          February 8, 2022

          So just after writing a reply to LL I see JRM as been moved to Brexit opportunities and government efficiency in cabinet office so hopefully we could see see a big change in government over Brexit

          1. X-Tory
            February 8, 2022

            No. The appointment of JRM as Minister for Brexit Opportunities is sheer flimflam, designed to deceive and placate Boris’s Brexiteer opponents. NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Why? Because Boris is determined NOT to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Brexit. He already has a list of possible opportunities he could take advantage of if he wanted to. Such as eliminating VAT on energy, or scrapping the Solvency II rules, or removing all restrictions on gene editing (for both plants AND livestock) … But Boris refuses to do ANY of these things. The obstacle is Boris himself, and as long as he remains in post then JRM’s appointment is utterly meaningless.

        2. glen cullen
          February 8, 2022

          Boris was the only person in the country sitting on the fence and writing two letters, everyone else was 100% remain or 100% leave
.saying a lot about his current behaviour

      2. Mark B
        February 8, 2022

        There will be no Starmer / SNP. The only reason Labour managed to hang on, and then lose power, was because they lost Scotland.

      3. glen cullen
        February 8, 2022

        +1

    2. Andy
      February 8, 2022

      As we have asked time and again – which legislation do you want repealed.

      None of you can ever name anything.

      Reply I have often answered that question. Try a new attack

      1. graham1946
        February 8, 2022

        The attention span of a goldfish.

      2. lifelogic
        February 8, 2022

        Nearly all of it!

        1. Andy
          February 8, 2022

          That sums up how silly you Brexitists are. You don’t even understand what EU law is. Most of it is regulation to facilitate trade. For example: children’s toys have to meet x, y and z safety standards. Paint cannot contain cancer causing chemicals or lead. Food has to be made in conditions which meet x, y and z hygiene standards.

          It really is beyond pathetic that after six years none of you know this stuff. So when you talk about scrapping all EU laws you are still simply demonstrating that you are exceptionally dim. If further proof be needed.

          1. Peter2
            February 8, 2022

            We had consumer laws, health and safety laws, environmental laws and employment laws in the UK before the EU existed.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 9, 2022

      What, exactly, do you want “done to compound our independence”?

      You need to be precise and specific.

  6. Oldtimer
    February 8, 2022

    Thank you for this reminder of how dire the consequences of policy choices can be over time. And how they create huge imbalances over time as seen today in the EU. Another contemporary example of misguided policy is the accelerated drive to net zero on the back of the Climate Change Act. I read that now some of the scientists behind the original AGW thesis now acknowledge that many of the climate models produced are useless and have been dumped. They also acknowledge that clouds are a critical influence on climate which their grid models are too crude to measure. This point was made by Dr Steven Koonin in his book, “Unsettled? What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters.” He also draws attention to the low confidence levels the climate scientists themselves have attached to forecasts to the end of the 21stC. The sooner the Tory party grasps this nettle of misguided policy the better.

  7. Gary Megson
    February 8, 2022

    Thirty years since Maastricht. Two years since we left the EU. But you just can’t let it go can you. If you did, you’d have to stop blaming Europe for the mess this country is in, and take a bit of responsibility. And that would never do

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 9, 2022

      Most parents would be surprised, if a two-year-old, after throwing its food about in a tantrum, calmed down, apologised, and offered to clear up its mess, Gary.

      We perhaps expect too much.

  8. Newmania
    February 8, 2022

    I was was opposed to ERM, ceding control over interest rates and the exchange rate was clearly a hideously risky business and I was amazed , at the time, at the lack of caution. Black Wednesday, however, humbled politicians of all kinds . A good thing . It was the precursor to 16 years of stable moderate Government , Growth and security .A golden age by comparison to mendacious shambles blundering around No 1o today.
    The UK was close to the US and through years of work pacified N Ireland and crafted a unique place for the UK in Europe gaining as much cake as was possible. Education and Health were dragged into the modern age.
    The lesson we should all take is that political projects which ignore economic reality cannot succeed and quickly or slowly people will turn on those who made them poor. The Politicians who sold Brexit to the British will be the guilty men of tomorrow .

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 8, 2022

      Blah blah.

      The successor government wasn’t stable, wasn’t moderate and was certainly mendacious. It caused many political and cultural upheavals, a banking crash, a rise in stabbings and the destabilisation of the middle east and the ensuing refugee crisis.

      We went into that period with a security guard able to afford a London house and for his wife to raise his kids without working and came out of it with doctors and research chemists having to share rented houses with their colleagues – deciding that having kids is not for them.

      You wouldn’t know this, of course.

    2. Richard1
      February 8, 2022

      Let’s recap on the ‘stable moderate’ policies pursued under the 13 years of Labour govt:-

      – the sale of 1/2 the nations gold at a 40 year low
      – record deficits at the peak of a debt fuelled boom
      – the leveraging up of the banking sector to 50x resulting in a huge bank bust which they dealt with with a foolish and unnecessary subscription for equity at an inflated value – most of which we still have
      – the iraq war
      – the stoking up of separatist resentment in wales and Scotland through devolution
      – the signing of 3 federalising eu treaties with no referendum (ironically providing Leave with some more good arguments)
      – innumerable attacks on historic liberties including freedom of speech as they sought to smear opponents

      Not really very moderate or stable was it?

  9. MPC
    February 8, 2022

    Blame for ‘destroying the Party’s reputation for economic competence’ can now be firmly placed on Boris Johnson rather than the EU, with close alignment with the EU to follow once a new government is elected, despite Brexit.

    1. graham1946
      February 8, 2022

      Are you absolving Osbourne who implemented austerity yet still managed to raise the national debt more in 5 years than the previous government managed in 13 years, including the greatest recession of all time? Truth is, since Thatcher they have had no economic competence.

    2. glen cullen
      February 8, 2022

      Agree

  10. Bill brown
    February 8, 2022

    Sir JR
    “But not for a more independent country with global ambitions”
    From where I am sitting that seems like an illusion, which we would have been able to exercise better inside the EU?
    But the Brexiters seem to know better and have a plan. But I am still looking for the plan and the capability to eexecute it

    1. glen cullen
      February 8, 2022

      Brexit was never about us having a plan
it was always about not having a plan imposed upon us by the european union

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 8, 2022

        Seems to be about whatever you need for an excuse at any given moment, changing from one day to the next.

      2. hefner
        February 8, 2022

        So, in that case, what has been happening since 24/06/2016 can only be said to have been brilliantly executed, don’t you think?

      3. Bill brown
        February 8, 2022

        Glen Cullen

        Not having a plan is costing us dearly and makes no sense

        1. Peter2
          February 8, 2022

          Depends if you think the State should have a plan or just allow and enable commerce to create wealth employment and economic growth.

          The EU is getting like the old Soviet empire in thinking there should be a centrally controlling bureaucracy with a grand plan.

          1. glen cullen
            February 8, 2022

            Agree

          2. Bill brown
            February 9, 2022

            Peter 2

            Can we see some proof please as you keep coming up with your imaginary statement

          3. Peter2
            February 10, 2022

            Why so touchy every time your beloved EU is mildly criticised Billy?
            The UK is out now and you and your pals can carry on creating a superstate with it’s own st of laws, army, anthem, ambassadors, embassies, Presidents, flag and money.
            Enjoy.

          4. hefner
            February 10, 2022

            P2, I am all for commerce to create wealth, employment and economic growth.

            So why do some here appear unhappy that an awful of products are not made in the UK anymore and have to be imported? Isn’t it the result of a working global market?
            Or do you want to introduce/strengthen regulations to limit commerce and global trade?
            You might need to let us know a bit more about what your thinking on this topic is:
            Would you be happy for the UK taxpayer to help directly (via grants) or indirectly (via tax rebates) UK start-ups and SMEs, or should these companies deal with the ‘market’ all by themselves without any help from the state?

  11. Richard1
    February 8, 2022

    Maastricht was indeed a watershed. It remains to be seen whether the ‘clean’ brexit we have (excluding N Ireland and fish) is worthwhile, given the undoubted frictions it has created, versus the alternatives of a Switzerland or Norway type model. For the U.K. model to work we need a much bolder implementation of the free market, competitive, global vision for the U.K., outlined during and since the referendum by Sir John and others. If on the other hand even a Conservative govt with a big majority chooses big govt statism with high and uncompetitive taxes as is now happening, then it would be better to go for a quieter life and eg re-join the EEA. Your choice Conservative MPs.

  12. Nottingham Lad Himself
    February 8, 2022

    Sir John writes like a bitter divorcee, sniping at a happily married couple’s Golden Wedding anniversary.

    So do his followers here.

    Reply Not so. A sensible and balanced account if you re read it. Why so touchy about any analysis of the EU you love?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 8, 2022

      Sensible and balanced as in “grapes are nasty, sour things” if you ask me.

      1. Peter2
        February 8, 2022

        No one is asking you NHL

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 8, 2022

          Well, the good folk of the European Union certainly aren’t asking or bothered what Sir John thinks, nor anyone else in the brexitories.

          1. Peter2
            February 8, 2022

            Good.
            Let them continue to develop their 50s style superstate.
            They are now free to do that.
            Without us.

        2. Bill brown
          February 9, 2022

          Peter 2

          Debate instead of silly statements

          1. Peter2
            February 10, 2022

            Go on then Billy.
            You first.

  13. Donna
    February 8, 2022

    Whilst I appreciate Sir John is reviewing the Maastricht Treachery and events following it, none of it would have happened if Heath hadn’t carried out the original treachery: taking us into the EEC in the first place; deliberately lying about the intention to morph what we were told was a trading bloc into first a political union and then a federal state.

    I wasn’t old enough to vote in the post-membership referendum of 1975, so the first time I got a chance to vote on the EEC/EU was 2016 after Nigel Farage/UKIP and a number of Conservative MPs had forced pro-EU Cameron to hold a Referendum he didn’t think he could possibly lose.

    Post Maastricht I didn’t vote Conservative again until 2019. On the basis of Johnson’s performance so far, I very much doubt I will be in 2023/24. I want genuine REFORM of our governmental institutions and we’ll never get that from the Establishment Parties.

    1. Timaction
      February 8, 2022

      Agreed entirely.

  14. villaking
    February 8, 2022

    I think you miss the critical point that we had an opt out from the currency union and an agreed opt out from the notion of ever closer union. It was this best of both worlds type of membership that was so beneficial. You imply in this blog that we might have ended up in a monetary and political union which is simply not true (or I too would have voted to leave).
    Is it not time to stop looking back now? We left two years ago and left the transition period a year ago. I think we now need to try and find some of these elusive wins you keep promising rather than reflecting on how clever you were to have won the referendum

  15. Denis Cooper
    February 8, 2022

    Despite what Nick Clegg and others said:

    https://euobserver.com/opinion/154311

    “A free Europe needs an army”

    “It is therefore high time to make progress towards an European army based on a common foreign policy. Not to weaken Nato, but rather to strengthen it. A survey of European citizens has shown that the need for a European army is perceived as the most urgent.

    My country of Belgium has had politicians who have left a huge mark on European integration. Without Paul Henri Spaak there would have been no internal market. Without Guy Verhofstadt there would have been no convention that launched the last major reforms of the EU. And without Herman Van Rompuy, Greece would have been thrown out of the eurozone.

    That is why I call on the Belgian government to push the Conference on the Future of Europe to continue this tradition. Let us commit to a true European Defence Union. And let’s remove, once and for all, the blocking national vetoes that stand in the way of a common European foreign policy.”

    I wonder what the Irish government would have to say about that.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 8, 2022

      That is in the Treaty, in black and white as an aim, so there’s no conspiracy.

      However, it requires unanimity of the members, and as Clegg correctly explained, that would never foreseeably happen while the UK was a member because it would veto it.

      That shackle is now removed, so the very best to the European Union with progress on that front.

      1. Denis Cooper
        February 8, 2022

        Who said anything about a conspiracy? If there has been a conspiracy it has been by people like you concealing the truth from the general public. And why do you assume that a UK government would veto it?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 8, 2022

          How can I or anyone else conceal a famous public document from the public in the internet age?

          It’s simply that people professing to have an informed view on the European Union in truth could not be bothered to research a single fact about it, isn’t it?

          The major military powers of Europe have always preferred at-will bespoke arrangements between themselves to the Treaty proposals, and continue to do so, including this one.

          1. Denis Cooper
            February 9, 2022

            The Maastricht Treaty was not in the internet age.

            And in fact the Maastricht Treaty was not even immediately available in English.

            The Labour peer Lord Stoddart, February 17 1993:

            https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1993/feb/17/maastricht-treaty

            “The fact is that the Maastricht Treaty takes a large step towards a federal European state. Of course the Prime Minister and his Ministers assure us that that is not so and Erskine May lays down that Ministers do not lie to Parliament. But they can conceal the truth and I believe that they are doing just that in respect of the Maastricht Treaty. The sad thing is that we shall not know the truth until it is too late. But Herr Kohl, Martin Bangemann, M. Mitterrand and many more people in Europe know the truth. They have no doubts about the meaning of the treaty and they have proclaimed the treaty as federalist. Indeed, they exult in that fact.

            Finally, I wish to protest once again at the failure to involve the people in decisions which have far-reaching consequences for their future and that of their children. The Government have no mandate to force the treaty through. At the general election in April the English text of the treaty was not available. As all the political parties were agreed about the treaty, there was no real discussion during the general election campaign. Noble Lords should remember that when the Front Benches are harmonised the British people are disfranchised. That is why there must be a referendum. Without that the people of this country will never finally accept the binding shackles of the Treaty of Maastricht.”

            And so it has proved.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 9, 2022

            The Lisbon Treaty.

            It was the reference document in 2016.

            2016 was very much in the internet age.

          3. Denis Cooper
            February 9, 2022

            The article is about the Maastricht Treaty, and now that we are in the age of the internet we can indeed see that it included 33 references to “defence”:

            https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A11992M%2FTXT

            which was not mentioned at all in the original 1957 Treaty of Rome that was retrospectively approved by the UK electorate in the 1975 referendum.

  16. Sea_Warrior
    February 8, 2022

    The EU’s foreign policy execution is going well, isn’t it? I wonder if this week will see a military coup in Russia.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 8, 2022

      Do you mean the nations of Germany and France?

      They are talking in that capacity and the US with Russia.

      Note that the UK is not there.

    2. Mitchel
      February 8, 2022

      No chance.You’d be better exercised wondering why NATO/CIA/MI6 spends so much money on propaganda to so little avail.I’m no fan of Macron but he’s head,hands and feet above the dross the UK and USA field in international relations.

      In the meantime,contrary to what you have read(and,it would appear, have believed)Russia gets stronger by the month.Just have a look at the deals agreed with China last week.

  17. agricola
    February 8, 2022

    I cannot get into the minds of those who conceived a united Europe in the aftermath of WW2, but having been there as a child I have some idea of what they were aiming at. A Europe that traded together and lived in harmony was infinitely more desirable than what their life experience had been.
    The trading part should have gone on much longer than it did without the political ambition of the few who see themselves as the annoited ones whose lead should be followed. Just as all the dictators who preceeded them failed because they tried to impose their philosophy on everyone, the political leadership of Europe failed because they have not carried the people with them. Such ideas and aspirations as they had can only work through democracy. The EU as it is now tries to cloak itself with a veneer of democracy, the EU parliament being this facade which a vast number consider to be inadequate, in that it has no real power.
    The Euro single currency is a prime example of a step too far too soon. Single currencies work in the USA and UK because in each case they are currencies of a single unified democracy. The EU is neither a single entity nor is it a democracy.
    The way forward for Europe is a reset. Concentrate on trade, unadulterated by CAPs and CFPs. Drop the compulsion that some insist must be part of political cooperation. Essentially it must be driven by democracy imperfect and frustrating though it can be. A Europe not driven by the people is not worth having, which is why we in the UK declined it.

    1. Bill brown
      February 9, 2022

      It’s driven by the people

    2. Peter2
      February 10, 2022

      Agree with every word agricola
      An excellent post.

  18. No Longer Anonymous
    February 8, 2022

    Maastricht is the point at which we should have had a referendum.

    In 1975 people did not vote to join the Eastern Bloc. For whatever reason, in those days, both parents didn’t have to go to work to compete for housing and – unlike 2016 – there weren’t programmes called Wanted Down Under where guests on the show said every time “The work/life balance is so much better down here.”

    1. Andy
      February 8, 2022

      The Eastern European countries didn’t join the EU until 2004. And then it was Britain which pushed them to join.

  19. Richard1
    February 8, 2022

    An interesting thought experiment is what would have happened had we signed up to maastricht proper and joined the euro – as most EU evangelists urged at the time (though won’t admit it now). It is reasonable to assume we would have had an even bigger bust as leverage in the banking sector and probably the govt sector would have been driven even higher, with no sterling interest rate. We would then have had the same situation as Greece but much worse given the relative size of the U.K. banking sector – forced into radical austerity by the requirements of the Euro authorities who would have determined what was and wasn’t allowed. The 25% devaluation of sterling under brown wouldn’t have been available.

    The result would surely have been hard Brexit in 2008 – if you’re out of the euro you’re out of the EU. and the replacement of whichever govt was then in power (perhaps Blairite Labour, perhaps Helseltinian Conservative) with a radical eurosceptic govt.

  20. Everhopeful
    February 8, 2022

    We continued our membership of the EEC on a lie.
    And the lying has never stopped!

    1. glen cullen
      February 8, 2022

      It certainly looks and feels that way
      Like climate change….look out of your window Nothing has changed

  21. forthurst
    February 8, 2022

    The Brexit Referendum result underlined the fact that we do not have an electoral system that enables the people to express their political ambitions for our country. This is why the issue of the EU and so much more is posited as a struggle within the Tory Party. Under a fair electoral system, politicians selected and funded by globalists with an MSM under globalist control would still not be able to override the wishes of the people;
    politicians whose policies involve the impoverishment of this country by their espousal of the Global Warming Hoax and our inundation by wave upon wave of unassimilable aliens whilst they claimed laws, domestic and international, prevent them from doing the people’s bidding would be replaced by politicians who would proclaim the supremacy of British law and change those laws to achieve what the people, not the globalist wreckers demanded. The Tory party and the antiquated and inequitable electoral system they use to maintain their rule is an obstruction to our achieving a viable future for our country. Time is running out.

    1. forthurst
      February 8, 2022

      It would appear that there is uncertainty over the future of ARM Holdings once again. The Japanese Hedge Fund owner has failed to flog it off to its US prospect and has decided to put it back on the market but without any clarity as to the location of the listing and therefore the future centre of gravity of the company. All this is a direct consequence of Tory industrial policy or lack of it and its insane idea that a foreign takeover constitutes ‘inward investment’.

      When are the Tories going to wake up to the fact that the UK is the only country with a for sale sign over its strategic industries unless, of course, they make killing machines, devices these days which use microchips, anyhow, a fact apparently unknown to Tory ministers with their Arts degrees and scientific knowledge by-passes.

      Takeovers are normally damaging if the predator is a conglomerate or hedge fund and are very damaging if the predator is foreign.

  22. glen cullen
    February 8, 2022

    If we see a coup in Russia it’ll be a staged coup like Turkey

    1. Mitchel
      February 8, 2022

      You may actually see another coup in Ukraine- by the neo-cons to oust Zelensky and re-install Poroshenko who shares their rabid tendencies.

    2. glen cullen
      February 8, 2022

      That comment was in reply to Sea_Warrior above

  23. glen cullen
    February 8, 2022

    Department for Brexit Opportunities = Repeal TCA & NIP and go full on WTO.
    It certainly doesn’t need a minister to implement the opportunities, it just need the leadership and policies of the PM and his cabinet to enact.
    Unless this appointment is a smokescreen to deflect and slow any transition

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 8, 2022

      Does not apply in Northern Ireland.

      Apropos of which, here is a useful answer provided by the Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots yesterday:

      https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2022-02-07.10.1#g10.38

      “I will say this clearly, because the European Union needs to know it: we have no intention of being used as a back door to import materials to the European Union’s single market that undermines the integrity of that single market. I am happy to be helpful on that front, but it cannot expect us to impose such punitive checks on all the people of Northern Ireland, in spite of the fact that some of their public representatives would slavishly comply with the Holy Grail of Brussels.”

      That should have been said at the UK level long ago:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/11/07/the-big-issue-is-the-withdrawal-agreement-not-the-irish-backstop/#comment-971621

      “Just make a declaration along these lines:

      “For our part we will do nothing new at the Irish border for the foreseeable future. The present free flow of goods and people can continue exactly as now.

      If there are UK tariffs to be levied on the imports we will do that away from the border, and if that leads to some evasion we will accept that minor financial loss.

      If the EU is worried that the open border may become a back door for contraband to enter its Single Market then we pledge to take all effective legal and practical measures to help minimise that problem for them, continuing with the existing full and sincere co-operation we already have with the EU and Irish customs authorities.

      What the EU and Irish authorities do on their side of the border will be entirely up to them.”

      1. Denis Cooper
        February 9, 2022

        This new article is worth reading:

        https://www.cityam.com/britain-must-finally-decide-on-the-fate-of-the-northern-ireland-brexit-border/

        “Britain must finally decide on the fate of the Northern Ireland Brexit border ”

        Some of it is incorrect, but I don’t expect the government will attempt to put the author right.

        It says nothing about the damage that the protocol is doing to the Belfast Agreement and the prospects for sustained peace and civility in Northern Ireland. As I attempted to point out yesterday, Belfast City Council has voted to intervene in the legal proceedings in support of the EU border checks required by the protocol and the vote was 29 in favour, from Sinn Fein, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party, and People Before Profit, and 18 against from all the unionist parties, and one independent unionist.

        https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/belfast-council-join-legal-challenge-23017605

        This is a recipe for resumed communal strife.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 8, 2022

      “…And next on Brexit Opportunity Knocks, folks, we have Alf Shirt from Bridlington, who is going to show us how to fit a VIP helicopter landing pad to his B&B.

      He’s one of the brightest rising stars that we’ve had on the show, and I mean that most sincerely folks…”

      1. Peter2
        February 8, 2022

        Back from the pub now NHL?

        1. Bill brown
          February 9, 2022

          Peter 2

          Stupid and unnecessary remarks

          1. Peter2
            February 10, 2022

            I agree bill.
            NHL’s comment was indeed stupid and unnecessary.

    3. Andy
      February 8, 2022

      Perhaps you should read the things you want to repeal?

Comments are closed.