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If the sight of our prime minister going round with a begging bowl to every Member State of the EU in order to be able to achieve some piffling tweaks of policy, and actually failing to achieve his aims and having to accept less, doesn’t give you serious pause for thought; I honestly don’t know what will. It is plain evidence of our enfeebled status as a nation and testament to the unreformable nature of the EU.
I quite understand why vast swathes of people are undecided on how they will vote in the referndum, I have no issue with fence sitters; it’s a reasonable position to take in many ways. But its getting tedious hearing politicians and others saying that they want to see a reformed EU before they decide because this is a phoney position, usually adopted by faker “eurosceptics” that can’t be trusted.
It’s time to put this fallacy to bed, we are not going to see an alteration of the fundamental nature of the EU, nor will we see serious changes to our relationship. It has been a concept based on supranationalism since its inception and our relationship will always be one based on subordination and coercion. Those who propose a unique form of membership for Britain that is only to do with trade and little else are selling a lie. You either leave or remain, but as much as the EU would like us to remain it will not alter its DNA, it will not allow us to undermine the whole concept of the Union.
The supremacy of the EU over Member States is not up for debate, in law, trade and an increasing range of policy. If the EU were to dismantle or radically change its institutions to be based on equitable cooperation, change its policy on infiltrating civil society and public institutions of its states, halt its cultural programmes designed to force the creation of a European Demos and undermine national identity, it would please us greatly, but then it would no longer be the EU, it would be something entirely different. The kind of reform sought by those who have committed to Leave and those sceptic fantasists who think it can completely change course, or make an exception just for the UK, would be a threat to its very existence.
We seek a cooperative, rather than coercive, alliance with the EU. We want to work with our European friends to be a major driver of global progress, as a partner not a subordinate. We want to be a self-governing democracy. These desires are incompatible with EU membership, they are simply not part of the project and never will be.
The EU accumulates power gradually, and drives forward integration by stealth. It infiltrates every area of civil society and uses our own money to foster dependency in NGOs, local authorities and universities. Hence why the UK is rife with advocacy groups backing their paymasters slavishly, and deceptive signs in our deprived areas read “the EU is investing in your future”, despite the fact the UK is a net contributor and is therefore simply receiving back a proportion of its own funding. Every crisis is used as a means of deepening integration and re-asserting dominance; the solution is always to surrender a little more democracy for the greater good.
“Euroscepticism” is, at this stage, rapidly becoming meaningless. It has to be understood that the EU is a political project, it is not and shall not be a matter of mere economics; the ultimate destination is a united Europe subject to a supreme government. There is no scenario in which we can remain but only have an economic relationship. The only way to ensure that the UK does not travel to the end destination is to leave the Union altogether. If the British people were asked the honest question “Should the United Kingdom be subject to a supreme government for Europe?” There would be a landslide. Well, that is, in effect what we are being asked.
We now have very clear evidence of how fundamentally inflexible and averse to change the EU is; it has been utterly unresponsive to our needs, despite the looming referendum. Cameron has been hung out to dry by his fed up EU colleagues who will never be derailed from their goal. Now that Cameron has gauged reactions and been ravaged by the press and seen a few polls with the wrong kind of trends, we may see more political theatre, and delays to the referendum date. Eventually culminating in an enhanced offer designed to manipulate lowered expectations. Beware of this, for nothing that resolves the issues I have discussed will be coming our way, and this is absolutely understandable if you look at it from the perspective of the EU, and integration keen Member States.
We may get put on the official “slow track” of a two speed Europe, but the destination remains the same. The absolute best we could hope for is a pause to any further integration, but how long can that last? If you don’t want to be in a united federal Europe, stop dreaming of reform, and get real. We have second class status in the EU, third rate status in the world, and severely limited influence in Union which has subordinated us. Time to leave.
This post was originally posted by the author 11 February 2016 http://thescepticisle.com/2016/02/11/the-eu-will-not-reform-for-us-nor-should-it-so-get-real/
