Repatriation of powers: really?

The Daily Telegraph carries a report that David Cameron has ordered a review, involving every government department, of every aspect of the UK's membership of the European Union, with a view to creating a 'menu of demands' where repatriation of powers are concerned. Coupled with the Daily Telegraph article, the Mail (bless it's socks) carries a report that more than two-thirds of people believe the European Union is 'over-mighty.

At the risk of being accused of needless repetition - it ain't going to happen for one reason and one reason only: 'Acquis Communautire', a term which means that competences (or powers), once ceded to the EU, can never be returned. That Cameron can propose and allow to continue this fallacy is but disingeniousness on his part - a characteristic of which he has prior form. That the media can also propagate this idea, with no attempt that I have seen to question the possibility that this can be achieved, is an act of negligence on their part.

Let us digress for a moment and consider 'sovereignty', 'self-governance' and 'political power'. 'Sovereignty' is generally held to be the ability of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory, ie a nation. It can also be said that 'sovereignty' has always been defined as the ability to guarantee the best interests of its own citizens, thus, if a state could not act in the best interests of its own citizens, it could not be thought of as a “sovereign” state. 'Self-governance' is generally held to be the ability to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter. 'Power', in the political sense, is held to be the ability of a section of society which is elected to administer some, or all, public resources including defense of the realm. (Let us not, at this moment, enter into a discussion about 'administer' and 'dictate'). That the UK's membership of the European Union means that it is unable to qualify for just one of those terms means that Cameron and the rest of the political class, who maintain we 'must' remain a member of the EU, are in effect guilty of treasonous behaviour in that, without the people's consent, they have ceded, elsewhere, the ability of the UK to decide its own future.

And that, dear reader, is why first we need to slaughter our political elite and then tell the European Union that they need to indulge in the dance known as a 'Foxtrot', adding the word 'Oscar'!

Update: As has been pointed out to me the second paragraph has been badly worded - the "acquis communautaire" is just the body of law. It, itself does not prevent the repatriation of powers.  What does that is the Commission's monopoly of the power of initiation, combined with its role as guardian of the treaty.  Since it requires a law to repeal a law, and the Commission will never repeal a law unless it is replaced with another one, this ensures that the acquis continues to grow. However, this only applies to competences already defined in the treaties. There is nothing, in theory, to stop the member states reducing the Commission's powers (and thereby the acquis) with an amending treaty. In practice, though, that isn't going to happen.

We've heard this all before

With the Conservative Party conference about to begin, Cameron hits the press with this piece in the Mail which can only be described as yet more political claptrap. The first bit of claptrap comes in his opening paragraph when he states his party will not be meeting to talk amongst themselves but to talk to the nation; yet of course that is exactly what the Conservative Party will do, as do Labour and the Liberal Democrats, whilst allowing the nation to listen in. He writes about the worries of every home in paying rising energy bills, yet who condones the continuance of those worries by his insistence of continued servitude to Brussels who sets the parameters by which energy bills continue to rise? He writes about laying the foundations for a solid future and that as we are not in the euro, that can be done on our terms. We may not be in the euro but we sure as hell are liable for future bail-out sums via the IMF until 2013 and we sure as hell are subject to economic oversight by the EU Commission, with further 'controls' in the pipeline. He also raises the red herring of immigration and the cost of welfare for those immigrants, conveniently omitting the fact that he cannot limit those from the EU and equally he is unable to stop those EU immigrants getting all the benefits of the welfare system.

In a separate article in the same newspaper we are informed that Cameron promises to slash red tape, although in Cameron's piece he does not explicity say that - which is probably just as well because we have heard that from him before here, and here and we are still waiting for it to happen, which it can't again due to EU membership. As Alex Brummer, This is Money, writes:

"Phrases like ‘ending the red tape’ of legislation which has tied business in knots, and a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ trip off the tongues of our politicians so very easily, and are a standard part of almost every speech made on business by prime ministers, business secretaries or chancellors."

Richard North, EU Referendum, 'fisks' Charles Moore's op-ed piece in today's Daily Telegraph, to which little can be added, other than the fact that all Cameron can do where the governance of this country is concerned is 'whistle in the dark'. I can but reiterate that which Richard North writes, that our democratic system is totally unfit for purpose and is rotten to the core both morally and financially. On this subject an interesting article appears in the Daily Telegraph by Graeme Archer; and one passage is worthy of note:

"....... but I’ve never believed the reductionist argument which says we cast our vote primarily for economic reasons. We vote because there’s something about society we want to see re-engineered. Conservatives feel let down, not because the deficit is being tackled, but because too much in society feels the same as it did before the election. They understand that Mr Cameron requires Lib Dem votes to retain his anti-Labour majority, and that being politically shackled to the decaying Lib Dem corpse prevents the introduction, in this parliament, of proper Tory measures – such as tackling the Human Rights Act."

We may well vote in the hope that society will be re-engineered, but it never is - at least not in the way people would like to see. It never will be either, whilst politicians can act as elected dictators and decide matters amongst themselves, consequently, under the present system of democracy, they are wasting their vote.

Reverting to the subject of claptrap, we get more of this from Philip Hammond who again is on his HS2 'hobbytrain' with this article - never heard of TEN-T then, Mr. Hammond? John Redwood posts on the government's plans where development of our rail network is concerned. That the "Delivery Plan" seems to have totally ignored the EU's intended legislation that the user pays and subsidies will not be allowed appears to have escaped their attention - and that of John Redwood. That the "Delivery Plan" reads like the old USSR Tractor Stats makes one wonder whether this document is Tract or Fiction?

We are indeed being led by our political elite like sheep to the slaughter - and still the people remain unaware. No doubt the lightbulb will come on just as the bolt to put them out of their misery is about to be fired into their brains.

The reason for the EU's 'success'

"It is certain that all parts of Europe which are enslaved, have been enslaved by armies; and it is absolutely impossible that any nation which keeps them amongst themselves can long preserve their liberties; nor can any nation perfectly lose their liberties who are without such guests: And yet, though all men see this, and at times confess it, yet all have joined in their turns, to bring this heavy evil upon themselves and their country."
Cato's Letters No.95

Not a lot one can add to that, is there?

So, when the hell does the slaughter of our political army begin thus allowing us to escape the hell that is the EU........?