Friday , March 29 2024

National sovereignty

Let me ask you a question, dear reader, about sovereignty.

“Why is it that a sovereign nation like Great Britain and Northern Ireland should find itself having to ask permission of an unelected political and economic entity such as the EU to leave her relationship with that body?”

The question requires a definition of the word ‘sovereignty’ such that we can put the situation we now have with the EU in some kind of overall context.

This is just such a definition that should suffice, I would suggest:

Sovereignty is the full right and power of a governing body over itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a substantive form designating supreme authority over a process of civil government or constitution.

I would suggest that any fair minded commentator should agree that national sovereignty under that definition does not exist in any European country that is a part of the EU.

With the existence of a European Parliament and the over weaning influence of the European Courts of Justice, it should be clear that the predominant right of elected governments in the EU to govern their countries without external interference by the EU is a total myth. That the U.K. has assimilated over 60,000 rules, regulations and diktats into the governance of this country over the last 40 years should be evidence enough that our elected Parliament has forsaken the sovereign right to govern this country without external interference.

The basis for the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU Referendum was that our Parliament should take back control of all aspects of the way in which our country is run.

The basis of the Remain campaign, by definition of the word ‘remain’ was to stay as we are, maintain the status quo and thus continue to have no sovereign power over our right to govern.

I will not revisit the minutiae of the Referendum again as that has been done most days of the week by some Remain activist or commentator for over two years now. Enough has been said of an incendiary and erroneous nature already since the U.K. voted to Leave the EU by the EU itself and political and economic commentators who should know better.

I am often asked what exactly is in it for the Remain elite or what is the basis on which they proffer the position that we are better off in the EU than out of it? This is especially puzzling when the economic decline of the EU and our diminishing economic returns from our membership have shown themselves to be self evident. We lose £67 billion a year on our trade with the EU but gain £42 billion a year on our trade with the rest of the world according to the ONS.

The love affair some have with the EU stems, I would suggest, from a misunderstood knowledge of the fundamental driver of the EU, namely its objective to unite all of the SOVEREIGN nations of Europe into a United States of Europe.

This driver has been ever thus since Jean Monnet’s first visits to the U.K. in the early days of the Iron and Coal consortium, then the EEC and then the EU. Leaving aside the quest for power that some European states have exhibited during the 20th century, important though that is in this debate, the objective of a United States of Europe that some have, erroneously tried to compare with the United States of America is and of itself all the evidence any right minded observer should need that the direction of travel of the EU is to demolish any sense of national sovereignty as per the definition of the word sovereignty.

This driver also ignores the aspect of PATRIOTISM felt and exhibited by every sovereign nation.

What is patriotism?

Patriotism or national pride is the ideology of love and devotion to a homeland and a sense of alliance with other citizens who share the same values. This attachment can be a combination of many different features relating to one’s homeland including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.

If this feeling of patriotism to one’s homeland is as strong as it appears to be throughout the individual nation states of Europe, it begs the question why so many Europhiles are so willing to cede those feelings so willingly to an entity that has no basis for patriotic attachment in a United States of Europe with all of the features mentioned above so clearly missing such as ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.

If you really step back from the emotional positions of the Remainers in British society, I hope you can now see a reasonably balanced argument that the EU and its goals represent a failing ideology in that the fundamental bases of nation statehood, sovereignty and patriotism, are missing from the whole point of the EU.

I rest my case.

About Ian Pye

Ian is grammar school educated although he briefly flirted with the idea of becoming Britain's answer to Breaking Bad's Walter White with a short sojourn at university. The constant smell of hydrogen sulphide caused the break up of that partnership and thereafter he pursued a career in sales culminating in partnering with his second wife for many years in their own recruitment business. When the second marriage came to an amicable end, so did Ian's allotted time in the world of commerce and he became a retired person of no means but a still active brain. He lives on the outskirts of the great metropolis of Manchester and has close affinity with the red side of the football city being a United fan of over 50 years. He has deep interest in British politics, is conservative by nature and persuasion as well as reading much on aspects of religious theology particularly the works out of Albuquerque, New Mexico of Richard Rohr and hitherto Richard's mentor, Thomas Merton. Ian has three children, two of whom live in London and the third in Toronto as well as four adorable grandchildren

Check Also

The Peace Proposal: Shadows of Versailles

A change of seasons brings a change of perspective. With St Martin appearing on a …

One comment

  1. The most essential aspect of sovereignty is economic sovereignty. Without this a government is ultimately powerless so the Single Market is a capitulation to foreign powers.

    It is important that Leave move away from the term “Remainers” to the more accurate term “Euronationalists” because those who supported Remain in the referendum intend that the UK is governed by the EU which is a Nation State. We are no longer in the EEC, the EU is very different.