Jeremy Corbyn sees fit to quote Cat Smith (who she?) after appearing on a television programme. This is not news in itself, but we keep seeing this word "reformed" all the more often. Never once do they outline what those reforms should be.
The fact is, what we will get from the EU, if indeed we get anything will not be reform. We will get a change of policy direction at best. Only a new treaty amending previous treaties could give us any kind of reform.
The problem is, there are no real noises about a new treaty as we had previously assumed there would be. There is one in the offing for sometime in the future, but it is looking more and more like we won't know what it will look like in time for Mr Cameron's referendum. It is looking more like it will be the fudge many expected it to be. We might well have overestimated Mr Cameron after all.
Since there will be no change to the substance of the EU or our relationship with it, we must hold our politicians to account. On the basis that there is no diplomatic chatter from the Commission to suggest reform, only marginal policy adjustments that could be overturned by the ECJ, the likes of Cat Smith are effectively saying we should leave. If they are saying we should stay in a "reformed EU" we can only infer that we should leave if no reform is on offer.
But that's too much like logic really isn't it? "Reformed" is just a weasel word. Entirely empty - and spoken from a position of ignorance. Such cynics take us for fools and prey on the broader confusion of the public. That is the fundamental dishonesty at the heart of the EU project. Dishonesty and nurtured confusion is the only way the EU has ever advanced.
There is of course, a major problem for the EU in this regard. The reform the EU would need would be much more central control over the eurozone, more control over the internal economy and consequently, that would require directly elected officials and politicians at the highest level in order to bridge the democratic deficit. In effect, this would be the completion of the federal EU supreme government for Europe.
That is not going to happen though. Not with the UK as a member of the EU. You see we have a treaty lock referendum to come in the future. We may well not win this referendum, but we most certainly will win that one when we say no. Without unanimous ratification, we can say with certainty that the EU will never reform so long as Britain is a member.
In that regard, we might well keep our ear to the ground for signals that the EU would be happy to push us out the door. The federalist dream goes into hibernation without Brexit - and this is not something our rulers will tolerate for long. It cannot survive in its current form. From this we may deduce that Brexit, eventually, one way or another is inevitable.
On that basis it is time for politicians to drop the weasel words and stop insulting our intelligence. They should say what they mean. They want in at any cost - regardless of what that even looks like. There's a word for that. Zealotry.
We know that there are zealots like Catherine Bearder and Ken Clarke, but when if comes down to it, what we are dealing with is politicians who never bothered to understand the EU, its methods or its culture. That is the only explanation. No democrat could ever countenance it - and for the zealots, the ends justify the means. Between are the people who depend on their media for guidance. When that consists of men like Fraser Nelson, it is little wonder that we keep making the same historic mistakes.
What we are about to see is a referendum conducted on the basis of a massive lie, pushed by the ignorant and the deceptive onto the uninformed. On that basis we cannot possibly say that this is a democracy at work. When ignorance of the EU is structural and the establishment uses that to maintain a lie, then we are in territory other than democracy. Our politicians should be reminded that this has grave consequences when the public realise what has been done to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment