***Of bald men and combs - by Richard... There Could Well Be A Parting!

***Of bald men and combs - by Richard...  There Could Well Be A Parting!

Of bald men and combs - by Richard...

The European Movement is getting terribly worked up about the EU Referendum Campaign, offering a line-by-line fisking of the Campaign's position statement.

The trouble is that the statement is the usual identikit "euroscepticism" which shows that the authors know nothing and have learned nothing about the enemy they confront. Here is a sample:

It's a sad fact that Britain is sleepwalking into the European Super-State and Britain must wake up to the nightmares hiding under the sheets of Brussels. EU laws and directives made without our knowledge or consent, behind locked doors of the most complicated clauses and sub-clauses imaginable.

Equally predictable is the European Movement response, the bores leading the bores, making this very much the fight of the bald men. But the European Movement should know that any campaign which features as its pin-up boy the egregious Dale, gurgling about the "Westminster Village", is going nowhere.

The first and foremost requirement of any campaigner is to "know your enemy" - Wellington's finding out what is on the other side of the hill, and all that. And the most crucial thing you will ever learn about the EU is that it is not a super-state, has no ambitions to become one and will not become one. But it is, increasingly, a super-government - and that is where it intends to go.

Primarily, the EU is a means by which the political élites in each of the member states by-pass the democratic institutions in their own countries, imposing their rule without the inconvenience of people participation. That is why the construct is so popular and enduring. The élites have created their own government without the interference of the pesky people.

In short, the EU is not an external agency imposed on us by foreigners (the UKIP/little Englander paradigm) but a conspiracy in plain sight, so glaring and obvious that it is ignored by all. It is the mechanism by which the political élites of Europe by-pass democracy and keep themselves in power. Thus, the EU is what the power élite in the British establishment impose on their own people - replicated in each country of the Union of Elites.

But, as long as we have the spectacle of bald men fighting over combs, the proles can be kept occupied without ever getting near the truth. The conspiracy goes marching on. The European Movement is part of it, and the EU Referendum Campaign looks like it is joining it.

I must say I enjoy Richard North's material and he has been on my daily read list and a friend for many years. The article above was nicked from Oooop North and you can view his blog and join me there regularly CLICK HERE

So I thought I'd do my own fisking ;-)

It may in passing be of interest that I had already had a long conversation with EU Referendum Campaign's CEO and pointed out that permitting his nascent operation to be lampooned as a cult was unwise as it was already evident that Dan Hannan had jumped the gun to place is impramature on the organisation by launching in his own name to try to claim ownership well Dan does that, I guess it is something to do with insecurity, wasn't breast fed,left on his own too muich - who knows!

Some will have noticed I made the comment regarding early personalities on the bus at CLICK HERE

Peter Street – Cardboard Box Company.

Which is a good start and I hear Peter Street makes some VERY tough cardboard boxes as they will need them, as the list so far already contains some big organisations, but it also has to contend with some even bigger egos, if we are to see the levels of co-operation we all expect these people to be committed to.

Of course its a problem, but no organisation gets driven forward without ego and drive but no organisation survives if ego supplants drive!

I also made the point that Mrs. Dale's Diary was a fickle mistress and Iain himself was someone who may well be better on the outside than as a claimed friend.

My opinion I know, but for me to publish someone else's opinion as my own is a price beyond payment!

His tired trendy cliches cut no ice - he gives the impression that fresh air in an open field and he would be clutching for the bag around his neck and beyond doubt he was of The Westminster Bubble and barely that, having tried for years to get in as a PPC with the Tories he seems not to get the message - he is a parasite to some, an oleaginous sycophant to others but a choice for none it seems. Reject slips a plenty but who would want a commentator on life as a representative particularly one so jaundiced.

Seems I was right and other commentators have targeted the appearance of a personality cult!

I was assured last week by James that his web master was away but as soon as he returns both Dan and Mrs. Dale's Diary will move on - such banners are for crowds, groups, inanimate objects or animals - perhaps maps or works of art.

Much will change but everyone must start somewhere!

Lets face it just look at how crass and what a failure EU propaganda is and at a cost of €2.4Billion a year and even then both the achievements and the popularity, the trust and the output of The EU are tumbling - yet costs rocket!

I promised to fisk The EU's propaganda poodle's fisking to see it CLICK HERE

Regards,

Greg_L-W.

***Telegraph - 07-Sep-2010 - EU Referendum: Now for the most important vote of all

Telegraph - 07-Sep-2010 - EU Referendum: Now for the most important vote of all

***EU Referendum: Now for the most important vote of all

Daniel Hannan and Ruth Lea launch a cross-party campaign for a ballot on whether Britain should stay in the EU.

By Daniel Hannan
07 Sep 2010

No one under the age of 54 has been asked about Britain's relationship with the EU Photo: Reuters

The decision to hold a referendum on the voting system has surely killed off, once and for all, any notion that plebiscites are alien to the British constitution.


Referendums, once rare events, have become an unexceptional part of our democratic procedures. Before the election of Tony Blair, we had had only four such votes: one each in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and one across the UK on continued membership of the Common Market. Since 1997, however, there have been a further 39 local and regional ballots – not counting the hundreds of parish-wide polls called in 2007 to demand a national vote on Europe.

The question, these days, is not whether referendums are compatible with representative democracy, but what the next one will be about. If we are allowed a vote on how to elect our MPs, why not a vote on whether those MPs run the country? If we can have a referendum on whether to have a mayor in Hartlepool, what about one on whether the majority of our laws should be handed down from Brussels?

Today sees the launch of a cross-party initiative for precisely such a ballot. The EU Referendum Campaign brings together businesses, trade unions and members of all parties who want a vote on whether Britain should continue to be a member of the EU. We hope people will visit our website – EUReferendumCampaign.com – and sign our pledge.

European integration is precisely the kind of question that our great constitutionalists, Walter Bagehot, Thomas Erskine-May and, above all, A V Dicey, would have regarded as a proper subject for a popular ballot. It is an issue that divides all the main parties; an issue that cannot easily be settled at general elections; an issue of major constitutional significance; and an issue that sets Parliament against people. Opinion polls consistently show that between 40 and 55 per cent of voters want to withdraw from the EU, yet this position is shared by just one per cent of MPs. Here, in short, is a textbook case of where a referendum should serve as what Dicey called "the people's veto": a guarantee that politicians elected under one set of rules should not be able to change those rules without a further and explicit mandate.

No one under the age of 54 has been asked about Britain's relationship with the EU. Yet there have been gargantuan transfers of power to Brussels since 1975. Then, the EEC was a trading association. Today, it is a proto-state, with a foreign minister and diplomatic corps, a police agency and criminal justice system, a parliament and government, a currency, driving licence, passport and flag. If ever there was a proper subject for a plebiscite, this is it.

Against all these arguments is levelled, if we are honest, only one: fear of the outcome. It is a rotten argument. As Vernon Bogdanor, the closest thing to a contemporary Dicey, puts it, "in the final analysis, the arguments against referendums are arguments against democracy".

We see once again how, as well as being undemocratic in itself, the EU can require its member states to sacrifice a measure of their internal democracy. Seven governments had promised referendums on the European Constitution in 2005; six of them, fearing the result, went back on their words. Britain was one of those six.

This is as much about the integrity of our democratic institutions as about Europe. All three of our most recent prime ministers have promised us a vote on European integration.

Here is Tony Blair in 2004: "There is no question of any constitutional treaty going through without the express consent of the British people…. Regardless of how other members vote, we will have a referendum on the subject."

Here is Gordon Brown's 2005 election manifesto: "We will put it to the British people in a referendum."

And here is David Cameron in 2007: "Today, I will give you a cast-iron guarantee: If I become Prime Minister a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations".

Trusting the electorate would be the best way to answer the criticism that politicians, as a class, are out-of-touch. Far from detracting from the sovereignty of Parliament, a referendum would restore a measure of that institution's legitimacy. MPs should recognise that they are not the owners of our liberty, but its temporary and contingent custodians. If they want to carry on handing away our independence, they should have the decency to ask our permission.

To view the original CLICK HERE