If we look at the European Free Trade Association (Efta), that is a co-op of nations who work together as a team to get trade deals and wield influence on the world stage. But they only work together if they are in agreement. But at the same time they are also freely able to speak on their own behalf and act independently. It is in many respects the best of both worlds.
None of that, however, is true about the EU. The EU does not operate on the basis of mutual consensus. If you disagree with what you're told to do, that's just tough. And it works that way because something as large and diverse as the EU could never agree on anything otherwise.
And though you may think diversity is good, and in most cases it is, the EU exists for the purposes of erasing diversity, artificially merging the economies and governments of Europe, using legal instruments to confiscate powers from governments. It is the European Court of Justice and the Commission who decide on what powers they can take. It is power they frequently abuse. This is why we eurosceptics hate it with a burning rage. We can neither remove nor replace these people and they act without a mandate.
What that means is we get bad laws forced upon us which place constraints on domestic policy makers. It also means we cannot repeal or amend them in any meaningful way. The European Parliament is largely a decoy so that you believe it is a democracy. It is not.
More to the point, the founding fathers of the EU never believed in democracy. They believed that sovereign peoples would go to war with eachother, despite the general rule that no two democracies have ever gone to war. They always imagined there would come a day where the legitimacy of the EU would be challenged and so there are safeguards against reform to stop it ever becoming a democracy. This is why Cameron failed to secure any reforms.
And the reason we have the great and the good telling us that leaving the EU is difficult and the EU has all the cards in the negotiation, this is by intent. They always sought to make political integration irreversible. It is for this reason we have a democratic obligation to leave the EU. It has only ever advanced as far as it has by deceiving the people. Lying about its true nature, making us prisoners to the EU.
The EU is not a democratic project. It exists for the removal of democracy and the confiscation of powers. It is a purely political construct which exists only for the accumulation of power. It will not stop until it has all of the power. This is not about cooperation. This is about subordination of the nation state. It is a morally and intellectually bankrupt idea based on the fears of the previous century. Its methods and policies are permanently entrenched in the old world before the days of internet and globalisation. It is an anachronism holding us back and it will be the cause of the next major European depression unless we leave.
Our MPs this morning have said they will vote to keep us in the single market even if we leave the EU, so that means trade is unaffected, we keep freedom of movement (but with an emergency brake) and we get our own voice back internationally. For the time being that's the best of both worlds. From there we will further evolve out. In that regard there is little risk involved. It is a safe process and something that we need to do because nothing will be resolved if we don't.
As much as it will completely renew our relations with Europe it will cause a revolution in domestic governance and shock our politicians out of their complacency. For those reasons leaving the EU is absolutely necessary. We badly need this and we will regret it if we do not make full use of this amazing opportunity.
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