And We Are A Self-Governing Country?

Those that maintain the above statement is true need, in modern parlance, to 'get a life', especially when considering a few items that have appeared recently.

Exhibit 1: Courtesy of IanPJ on Politics comes this article which reports that "four European countries are blocking a proposal that could save Britain’s 1.6 million smallest businesses as much as £400 million a year. France, Belgium, Spain and Italy are obstructing a move to allow member states to exempt so-called micro-firms from a European directive on accounting standards. This is despite the exemption having been proposed by the Commission and approved by a vote in the European Parliament."

Exhibit 2: Open Europe press summary reports that "the European Commission is considering a proposal to introduce stricter consumer protection rules for mortgage loans, which would impose extensive information obligations, warning obligations in advertising and the imposition of standardised contracts. The regulations would also affect construction loans. A comment piece in the paper argues “what Brussels now does under the banner of consumer protection, raises the fear for extra costs of bureaucracy, which will raise the cost to build."

Exhibit 3: The same press summary from Open Europe also reports that "The Sunday Express noted that a directive has been presented to the European Parliament calling for road pricing, or taxes, for lorries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Department for Transport has already announced the Government’s commitment to introducing a lorry road user charge. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond ruled out a similar scheme for other vehicles but could be outvoted in negotiations with EU partners."

With the advent of the Lisbon Treaty, which has given the EU the power to basically do what the hell it likes, it is obvious that the expansion of the power they have knows no bounds. As The Boiling Frog posts "In essence the EU's founding father Monnet was too clever by half, he fatally underestimated the laws of human nature; when you create a system where the unaccountable in control feel comfortable, when they feel safe, then it becomes natural that they greedily want more power and abuse the power they've got. And eventually there's only ever one outcome." 

It should be remembered that there is no 'slippery slope' towards the loss of liberty, there is only a long staircase down which we the people are being led by our 'toy politicians' in our 'toy parliament', slowly, step by step in the hope we will not notice. It should also be remembered that those that lead us down that staircase are immune from the vast majority of the laws they pass, thereby being able to remain at the top of the staircase, due to their inflated salaries and perks.

One last point to remember: once that first step is taken then that is the start of the loss of your liberty and freedoms - and we in Britain are nowhere near the bloody bottom of this staircase yet - so how about we start the climb back?