Saturday 17 January 2009

National Interest - What National Interest?

My attention has been drawn, by EUReferendum, to an article in the International Herald Tribune which poses the question "Who listens to the EU these days?". Whilst the article in question is in respect of whether the EU can ever 'speak with one voice' on international matters due to 'national interests', that question raises yet another.

With so many areas now becoming those on which the EU decides to legislate - with or without the consent of its members - and that those decisions are taken by the 'Heads of State' (in this context the phrase 'Head of State' is used in conjunction with the Lisbon Treaty) and subject to QMV; one has to ask how can 'national interests' ever be preserved, or even resolved. With regard to this country, are not MPs elected (supposedly) to look after our 'national interests'? Yet when 'Heads of State' meet, and remember the 'Head of State' of this country is one of those MPs, he/she is supposed to 'work and make decisions' for the benefit of the EU - so we have a 'conflict of interest' here.

One of the most basic 'interests' which we, the people, of this country have is the right to decide the laws under which we live; to have political parties come to us, the electorate, and present a 'programme of beliefs/action' from which we can then choose which one of those 'programmes' we prefer - a system called democracy. Yet at the moment none of the three main parties can present a mandate to the electorate which will not 'conform' to the dictates/requirements of another unelected and unaccountable organisation - the European Union, based in a foreign country - the membership of which not one of the electorate have been given the opportunity to express an opinion.

The fact that not one of the three main political parties in this country will acknowledge their mandates are dictated by our membership of the European Union is a disgrace - 'Governments' no longer govern this country - so why do we elect them?

Some three years ago, at a meeting of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Luncheon Club - held at a venue called Witney Lakes - I asked a question of a 'supposedly eurosceptic' politician whether, as an MP, he was proud to belong to a body that had given away, without asking his electorate (aka his employers), the right of the British people to decide their own laws.,

Needless to say David Cameron did not answer the question!


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