The UK’s EU Referendum: We the People will choose …

On Thursday, we the People will choose …

Thursday, June 23^rd, will be a day that will live forever in British history, for it will be the day when the British people voted for democracy (leave the EU) or for technocracy (remain in the EU). This is the nature of the choice that is now before the British people and here are some notes and observations about this most important event.

We the people are being asked to decide. This is an excellent thing, for what is democracy, if we the people are never asked to decide, especially on matters so profound and which are constitutional in nature? People who believe in democracy should be celebrating this commitment to listening to the people and then acting on their decision. But what I note is that there are many people who do not celebrate this, and all of them as far as it is possible to tell, have vested (economic/financial) interests for the UK to remain within the EU. And I include within this group Juncker and his elitist political class whose commitment to democracy is limited to fine words and images. I cannot imagine Juncker and the leaders of the major European powers celebrating the power of democracy if the result is not what they want. In fact, all the signs are of an elite class that is willing to make threats to the British people and to use fear as their weapon. This is most certainly counter-productive. And the true nature of the elite that runs the European Union became all too clear with the treatment of the Greek people during the euro crisis. Do you really want to be part of a club that operates in such a way? Is it not time to take a stand against these people?

It has been an extraordinary time the past few weeks. We have been told that the world will come to an end on Friday June 24^th, whatever the outcome! There is misinformation coming from both sides. And when the opinion polls started to show a shift towards the Leave camp, the Remain camp began to engage in personal attacks on leading figures in the Leave camp, and to engage in scaremongering. The Remain camp has been playing the fear card, with their predictions of economic Armageddon taking place as a result of a leave decision. All sorts of claims have been made, yet the truth is that no-body knows what will happen if we should decide to leave. It will create uncertainty, but not the economic meltdown that the Remain camp is implying.

Most of what has come out of the Remain camp has been highly negative. Putting aside the matter of UKIP and their right-wing extremism which is also negative, the people who are starting to emerge from the debate with the most credibility or those leading the Leave camp. They have something positive to say and to offer, and have become more convincing that the Remain camp.

The most negative of the comments made during the past week came from the Chancellor of the Exchequer who promised an emergency budget that would cut public spending and raise taxes as a way of punishing the British people if we decide to leave. His credibility has been destroyed by this and it looks as though his days are numbered in this post. In saying this he seems to have forgotten that the matter of an emergency budget lies with the Cabinet, and its implementation lies in approval from Parliament, and many MPs from across the political spectrum have now declared that they will oppose such a budget. Perhaps the Chancellor of the Exchequer should head off to Brussels and become a European Commissioner, because there he would be able to implement such a move without the consent of elected representatives of the people.

What will happen on Friday June 24 if we decide to leave is that the Government will do what a Government is supposed to do and that is to start taking the responsible actions that will be needed to ensure that all the predictions of doom do not come about, and they will be able to start doing this, freed from the restrictions imposed on it by unelected politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats in Brussels.

If we do decide to leave, then on Friday June 24^th some people think that we will have isolated ourselves from Europe. Some have even said we will not have access to the Single Market. But how are the bureaucrats in Brussels going to stop European people and companies buying goods and services from the UK? Will they be policing the internet and knocking on doors in the early hours of the morning? They certainly know how to do such a thing, having much experience of operating police states!

This access issue is an example of the misinformation that we have been subjected to. The question is not one of access, for people from outside the EU, e.g. the Americans, have access to the Single Market. The question is instead, one of terms and conditions for access, and the worst case scenario is that we will have access on the same terms as, for example, the Americans – WTO rules!

Of course they, the EU might want to play difficult. Or it may be that common sense will prevail. One factor not much considered in all the scaremongering and threats from foreign politicians, is whether Juncker and the others would be willing to put at risk their jobs and growth agenda and to potentially destabilise the euro, just to be vindictive towards the UK. Are they really going to start a mini-trade war with the UK? It would seem that it is in the interests of both parties to have an amicable divorce.

Perhaps therefore what we will see in public are temper tantrums, but behind the scenes, desperate attempts to save the EU and to ensure that nothing is done to damage what they see as the European economy.

The British, it is said, do best when their backs are to the wall. History tends to support this view.  It is also a truth not sufficiently understood that there would be no democracy in Europe if Britain had not acted in the past to counter and oppose the tyranny and oppression that has so often been part of the continental way. At the moment we see, yet again, this time in the form of the EU, another threat to democracy coming this time from unelected politicians, bureaucrats and that insidious thing called technocracy. The College of Commissioners is what the body of European Commissioners collectively call themselves. It is however more like something one would have found in the Soviet Union, a kind of Central Committee, with bureaucrats making plans for the economy. It is most definitely the Road to Serfdom. ICT ART CONNECT (STARTS) is an example of this, which also reveals the corrupt nature of the relationships that can exist between the European Commission and its experts – it’s all about getting your hands on public money and the EC uses this as a way of implementing what its wants to do! And then they wonder why the European economy is failing!

Surely it is now time deal with the unelected Juncker and his technocrats? The European Union is a failing institution. The European Commission is a failing institution. They are the past not the future. Surely it is time to abandon these failures and reach out to a future that is not controlled by unelected politicians and bureaucrats operating a Soviet style system of running a country and an economy?

We, the British people, are a strange breed. We have done some bad things in the world and are far from being perfect, but when it counts, we have made a stand, which has usually involved putting aside short term interests and sacrificing the economic in favour of what is right. Now is the time to make such a stand.

The EU as it is now constituted is a result of changes that have been made without the consent of the people. Not once were we, the people of the UK, asked if what was being created by the political class is what we wanted. Now, we the people have a chance to have our say. It is time to send an unambiguous message to all politicians who dream of gaining power and acting without the consent of the people.

We have also been watching with interest the opinion polls, but we are not sure if they are telling an accurate story. They suggest that the nation is divided. Over the past two weeks the picture emerging is one of a swing towards the Leave camp. As of today it does look as though we are heading for the exit door, but, as the day to vote approaches, people may decide to opt for what they think is the safe option. And there are still a few days to go, so the pressure on both sides to convince the voters will continue!

Although there is much scaremongering about the economy, the issues for a large number of people is the free movement of people across the EU which is resulting in, many people feel, the destruction of British culture. This however seems to be the unspoken policy objective – to blend the many cultures found in Europe into one, because with a Single Market, goes a single currency, and a single culture, from which comes a single nation with, they think, an economy to rival that of China. Fantasies – for what will come from this is right wing extremism and civil strife, which the far right will use to strengthen their position.

Many people feel that they are wrongly being branded as racist and xenophobic for expressing concern about loss of identity. It is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed by the politicians, but they have no power to deal with the matter because their hands are tied by Brussels, and there this is seen an ideological issue over which there will be no compromise.

Most importantly however, the core issue is one of democratic control and accountability which has been denied the people. There is a simple fact: the EU is not democratic and is beyond reform. It needs to be sent into the pages of the history books where it will eventually be seen for what it is – the past becoming the future as once again, those with power, attempt, without the agreement of the people, to create a European Empire. We do not want such an Empire for it will eventually bring into being all those things that people fear from Europe’s past. You are most certainly not done yet with your wars and your camps and the EU, when the political, economic and social conditions are right, will one day become those things once again, for you have not understood that these things are deeply embedded in your culture, and only when you stop being European will you stop these terrible things.

Economies wax and wane as they are subject to the vagaries of markets, decision-makers and consumers. Democracy though is different, being easily broken, and difficult to recover once lost. Democracy needs to endure for it is the only means we have of protecting ourselves from people like Juncker, from the Brussels bureaucrats, and from the technocrats. Without democracy our only resort to freedom becomes revolution, and you know what that leads to.

Sadly, the week ended on a tragic note with the murder of a MP in her constituency. Campaigning was suspended for a few days as a mark of respect. Meanwhile, a shift became noticeable: foreign politicians stopped making threats and began pleading for the UK to remain so that we could work together to reform the EU.

But politicians who say such things have not got the message – we no longer trust politicians, and we know all too well what will happen. If we vote to remain, they make some minor adjustments, and then proceed on their way doing what they want to do, without our consent, heading to a place where we do not want to go, which will just fuel more right-wing extremism.

We have only one way to remove Juncker and the Brussels bureaucrats, and that way is to vote to leave, which will also allow us to diffuse the problems that are fuelling the rise of the extreme right. Ironically, by voting to leave we will be able to rid ourselves of UKIP, who will only grow in popularity and power if we stay. And the economic price, if there is one (which is very uncertain) is worth paying.

I would love the UK to remain in the EU, but I now know we must leave if we are to avoid being part of the sad story of events that is unfolding in continental Europe. Whatever the outcome I will not be having any further involvement with the European Commission once my present contract is finished. It is time to leave Europe and to help build a different world to the one that the imperial Europeans are trying to create.

Thus, on Thursday, we the People will choose …

And because this is so important, on Tuesday I will be publishing a special blog based on inside knowledge. For 30 years I have been involved with the European Commission and I now know that it is time to speak out and to condemn them for what they are, what they represent and what they are doing.