Needs must, so no apologies from me for presenting you with another article in our feature ‘From Behind The Paywall’ today. The article in question is by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (a.k.a. AEP) and was written in the wake of the pronunciation of the prorogation of Parliament.
The title is “Brexit is vibrant democracy in the raw: it is Europe that risks sliding under authoritarian control” (paywalled link). He is firstly looking at the hysterical comments in continental papers and compares them to the actual damage done by the EU to Democracy in various membership countries. Having thus set the scene, and after declaring his – lukewarm – attitude to the prorogation, AEP lets rip:
“The headlines across the European media have been predictably Gothic, echoing one side of the internal UK debate without a Fingerspitzengefühl [tact or flair] for what is just pantomime and what is not.
“Thus end democracies,” led “Die Zeit”. It accused Boris of resorting to the method of “despots”. “Deutsche Welle” called him a “dictator”.
I would certainly agree that democracy is at risk – and can die – but not particularly in Britain. For whatever you think of Brexit, you cannot with a straight face call it anti-democratic, unless of course it is ultimately thwarted by those aiming to lock us back inside the cage.
Can the same be said so confidently of Europe? The EU is composed of democracies (some more deeply-rooted than others). It has democratic elements such as the European Parliament. But it is not a democracy.
It is a supranational regime guided by a Commission with quasi-executive powers that operates as an ideological priesthood. Belgian and French historians compare it to the European imperial systems of the early 20th century with their hybrid structures and showpiece native assemblies.
The insidious effect of this centralised power is to bleed the lifeblood of the national institutions. It saps their legitimacy. It infantilises the member states by usurping their functions. This changes them over time.” (paywalled link)
It certainly has infantilised our institutions, e.g. Parliament and Whitehall whose members nevertheless regard themselves as less infantilised than we, the plebs who must be told what to do, incessantly. AEP continues:
“As I wrote at the time of the referendum, Lord Sumption (a former Supreme Court judge) gave an elegant description of how democracies die, though as ardent Remainer he fails to see how well this fits the EU itself.
“They are slowly drained of what makes them democratic, by a gradual process of internal decay and mounting indifference, until one suddenly notices that they have become something different, like the republican constitutions of Athens or Rome, or the Italian city-states of the Renaissance,” ….. Or the once vibrant liberal democracies of Europe in the early 21st century?
This EU regime is not elected in any meaningful sense. Voters cannot remove it when it persists in error, as it did eight years ago by driving Europe into economic depression and caused levels of youth unemployment long thought impossible in a modern civilized society. Nobody has ever been held to account for these failures.” (paywalled link)
In the following paragraphs AEP gives chapter and verse:
“Yes the EU is a soft empire, but it ceases to be soft when challenged, as became clear during the eurozone crisis when it toppled the non-compliant premier of Greece (George Papandreou had the temerity to call for a vote on the EU austerity package) and replaced him with a technocrat (a former vice-president of the European Central Bank).
It happened again in Italy in 2011 when it toppled premier Silivio Berlusconi and replaced him with another technocrat (ex-EU commissioner) who then delivered drastic and self-defeating austerity as demanded by the German finance ministry.
That episode is revealing. We know from one kiss-and-tell book (Bini-Smaghi) that the decision was made after Berlusconi began to talk of leaving the euro. One former ECB governor told me how these punishment beatings occur: “They threaten governments that misbehave with financial destruction. They cut off refinancing and threaten to kill the banking system. They create a roll-over crisis in the bond market. This what happened to Italy in 2011.”
A variant of this was done to Greece in 2015 when the ECB raised the pressure against the rebel Syriza government by dialing down liquidity to private banks – illegally, since they had done nothing wrong – until the money finally ran out in the cash machines and Alexis Tsipras capitulated.” (paywalled link)
Is that how Signor Salvini was suddenly ‘replaced’? It all goes to show how important a good memory is, combined with excellent insider’s knowledge! The question next raised by AEP certainly deserves an answer:
“There has never been a proper airing of how the ECB was able to write secret letters to the Italian and Spanish leaders ordering detailed changes to labour and social law, and fiscal policy, and even the Spanish constitution, while holding a gun to their head on bond purchases. We do not know who was responsible for anything because power was exercised through a shadowy interplay of elites in Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels, and Paris – and still is.
These methods smack of monetary dictatorship. There was never a whisper of protest from “Die Zeit” or “Deutsche Welle” at the time.
The missionary press corps in Brussels is invariably complicit. When one of their colleagues – a German reporter from “Focus” investigating EU abuses – was arrested on trumped up charges and held incommunicado as the police went [through] all his notes and computers, and burned all his investigative sources, none rose to his defence.
When the Commission’s chief accountant revealed abuses in the EU’s internal finances the Brussels press corps closed ranks in silence. It is a curious tribal reflex. Call it what you want but it is not what we in Britain would take for a free press that speaks truth to power.” (paywalled link)
If Brexit is scuppered, then we will be forced to accept the euro, the financial abuses, the debts. To continue:
“Ultimately, the logic of monetary union is incompatible with democratic self-government. It can be made to work over time only by moving to fiscal union, giving Brussels control over taxation, spending, and the core economic policies of nation states.
Prof Otmar Issing – the disillusioned founding father of the euro – says fiscal union must eviscerate the budget powers of the Bundestag and fellow parliaments. It goes to the essence of what it means to be a democracy, he says, and forgets the lessons of the English Civil War and the American Revolution.
For me the line was crossed when the EU smuggled through the Lisbon Treaty, enabled by a Merkel-Sarkozy executive stitch-up, after the text had already been rejected by French and Dutch voters in its earlier guise. It is one thing to advance the European Project by stealth and the Monnet method, it is another to override the outcome of a plebiscite.
And Lisbon matters. It extended the jurisdiction of the European Court to all areas on Union law for the first time (not just Community law), and arguably over everything by making the Charter of Fundamental Rights justiciable.” (paywalled link)
We’ve been saying that since the start of the Referendum Campaign in 2016. This is what Remain is carelessly sweeping under their Remain Carpet. The final paragraphs are explosive:
“Ireland alone held a referendum on Lisbon. When the Irish people voted no, they were made to vote again, just as they were made to vote again when they rejected the Nice Treaty.
This is the EU method. All votes that go its way are conquered ground, Acquis forever. All votes that go against are to be massaged, reworked, and ultimately recast until they go the right way … until Brexit, the referendum that the EU must reckon with.
The last three years have been messy for British democracy but have also been intoxicatingly vibrant. The fights have been conducted through Parliament, the courts, the press, and on the streets through passionate but peaceful civic protest. There has been nothing like theGilets Jaunes here. And let us hope that Boris’s rash move does not precipitate it. In short, British democracy is in rude good health.
“Die Zeit” should peel away the layers of obfuscation and euro-Kitsch and look more closely at Europe’s upper level of government: its reflexes and enforcement methods, its accretion of unaccountable power, its co-opted press, and the authoritarian logic of monetary union. That is where democracy is dying. It is half dead already.” (paywalled link)
‘Acquis forever’ indeed! And our Remainers want to see us chained to that dying, half-dead EU “democracy”. It defies reason.
Brexit stands for Freedom. Remain stands for serfdom and vassalage. That’s all.
I think the article is extremely good. In fact I have saved it to refer back to. At risk of sounding conceited I doubt many people would understand much of it. Unfortunately many people do not even care about Democracy. Even if it is pointed out to them that the undemocratic EU is continually usurping power away from the Nation States of Europe most people will not bother until of course their own lives are harmed. Come to think of it we are very fortunate that our referendum returned a LEAVE vote just about in time. Of course our system of government is not perfect. It is not entirely Democratic. But perhaps as the article says Boris’ moves are indicative of ‘rude health’.
Pauline Fully agree with your sentiments. I would add that gaining Brexit is only the first stage of the cleaning out the Augean Stables of Westminster. We all know that mass immigration is not going to stop after Brexit. Mass European immigration will be replaced with mass African and Asian immigration. Multi-culturalism, restriction on free speech, minority rights and the whole left liberal agenda will be cranked up after Brexit.
I don’t think Nigel and the Brexit Party will be about to continue this struggle and UKIP are a dead duck in the eyes of the public.
‘It defies reason.’ Yes it does. Why do so many want to Remain? People who are clever enough to know what is actually going on in the EU and yet still fight as though their lives depended on it to remain in this evil, corrupt bloc. Yes you Kenneth Clarke and you Amber Rudd – dear Amber how she twists and turns intent on being in the Government no matter what but stuck in Wages & Pensions no doubt on probation, not where she wants to be but rather there than on the back benches it seems. The only reason I can think that would make sense is they have been handsomely rewarded now and no doubt in the future. In other words BRIBED with our money or with the promise of power – fat chance, you are just useful idiots.
As someone pointed out earlier, Remainers don’t seem to be motivated by love of the EU and its institutions. They are largely ignorant or careless of their depredations of democracy. They cannot give a coherent answer as to why they wish to keep us locked into the EU colonial orbit. They rush to accept any proposal of foreign powers to put down Britain. In short, they appear to be motivated by visceral hatred of Britain, especially England, and hatred and scorn of the British working class – see treatment of Tommy Robinson.
Spot on .”motivated by ………hatred and scorn of the British working class” These Remainers on the whole are people who can all agree on one thing – that it is they who are charged with deciding what is best and what is not best for Britain. How can the working class who voted Leave have the intelligence to know what is best for them they ask?
We voted to leave – lets just leave already (not much of a book!!!)
However, if Brexit was a work of fiction being presented to a publisher, the publisher would laugh and send the author away with his/her tail between their legs saying “people will never believe this – a good tale but far too implausible”.
What has happened and is still happening is beyond belief to Brexiteers. I wager a large proportion of people who voted remain cannot believe the deceitful and treasonous behaviour of the remain MP’s, the dictatorial behaviour of the EU, the complicity of the MSM and the stupidity of the useful idoits waving their blue / starred flag about.
More and more people can now see what is going on – A second referendum would be an absolute landslide for leave in my opinion.
I think I can see out the last 10 or 20 years of my life but god help the youth if Brexit is thwarted – there future will be truly bleak !!!
Well said Viv , could you not send this to Sir John Redwood ? I used to send may items but the bar that allows it to be emailed as been removed for some weeks now.
The Puzzle:
Do the remainiacs understand how the EU is organised , where it stands now in removing democracy and where it is headed? If so why do they think it will not disadvantage them?
Clearly their brainwashing has been far more effective than the perpetrators could ever have hoped for.
” British democracy is in rude good health “.
Yees We-e-el. Far better than the EU certainly. By miles. However, and this should be in UKIP and Brexit party manifestos.
Parachuted in candidates are an offence to Representative democracy..
Lying mealimouthed and unenforced manifestos are another.
The party system was devised as a cure for factionalism and would work, if manifestos were not ignored.
The excessive number of jobs in the PMs gift are a source of corruption.
There is a lot of political creep of power assumption by PMs against the CONSTITUTIONAL monarch over the years particularly in the assumption of power over institutions such as Armed forces, civil service, and all the others. It is sickening.to watch.
The PMs ‘political ‘ control of Select Committees is another. We appreciate they are committees and therefore dangerous and need control but there advice must not be ignored or deleted.Serious and open consideration is possible with debate.PM control of this is not good.
I am not a constitutional Lawyer but these items seem to me to be anti democratic and are at least to me Putting much, and at the same time too little, power in the wrong hands
But to say the eu is democratic is just a sick stupidity.
But I could be wrong.