Over the Christmas and New Year period we saw yet more delusional displays of remoanerism by numerous Lords and other entitled individuals. They still don't understand the EU and what it is turning into. We need to continue the fight for a clean Brexit, argues Rory Broomfield
As Peter Mullen wrote on this site last week, the intellectual case for Brexit is clear. What is also clear though is, in spite of the incessant moaning of a select few establishment figures that the BBC like to promote on the Today programme, leaving the EU could be one of the best things this country could do. The reason? What the EU actually is and what it threatens to become.
Remoaners refuse to see what is obvious, however. What we know is that the European Union administers powers and controls traditionally overseen by democratically elected officials. Ever since the Maastricht Treaty in the 1990s, we've seen more and more power being given to / held at the top by unelected EU bureaucrats and technocrats that have, over that time, enhanced their controls over the peoples of Europe.
Yet messers Osborne, Heseltine, Adonis and Blair want the UK to remain tied to institutions led by people that don't represent the British people and remain unaccountable to them.
The ever-evolving increases of these EU power grabs can even be demonstrated with the way the EU has influenced the policies of many states around the EU. The sanctioning of Poland for conducting democratically legitimate reforms to its judicial system is an example of this. However, other examples include the chokehold that the EU has over the Greek and Italian economies / political systems.
It is, therefore, no wonder that approval ratings for the EU in these countries are among the lowest within the EU (with Italy recording the lowest level). What is amazing is how remoaners in the UK don't see what has been happening - and what they want for the UK instead.
When I heard that former Chancellor George Osborne had called Brexit 'a mistake' and infamous Brexit-hater Lord Adonis had resigned from his Brexit advisory position, I wasn't surprised. They have been famously anti-Brexit. However, when I heard that the Tory Peer Lord Heseltine had gone so far as to claim Jeremy Corbyn would be better for Britain than Brexit, I wondered whether some remoaners had lost their minds.
Yes, they might not like that the people of the UK want to regain their say over many areas of law that has been given to EU institutions; they might not like the fact that we want to set our own customs policies and internal business regulations. However, by suggesting that Corbyn would be better than Brexit what Heseltine is really proposing is that we substitute centralised control of the EU for the centralised control of a Corbyn government. The so-called 'liberal elite' don't understand that the EU and a Corbyn government are one in the same thing: and both are opposed by the British people.
However, what is also clear is that a Corbyn government would attempt to increase controls in the same way that the EU is attempting to seize more power from nation-states.
Plans that Corbyn's Marxist Labour Party put out at the last General Election included the nationalisation of energy firms, the water supply, the post office and the railways. There would be a raft of highly centralising, grossly expensive and unbelievably reckless regulation that would mean that Corbyn and his cronies could be at the centre of the economic and political future of the UK.
Scary!
Well, welcome to the future of the EU. As articulated by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in numerous speeches and public declarations over the past few years, the EU elite wants to also increase their power and centralise control further. In doing so, they wish to see an expensive and dangerous EU Army; a new extravagant and bureaucratic EU treasury; an unnecessary and menacing EU Secret Service; every member state adopting the disastrous Euro as their currency; and the completion of a political union that will further suffocate democracy in Europe. And that's just for starters.
In 2016, the British people decided that they didn't want any of that. Despite what has been claimed by numerous Labour Party politicians, people did know what they were voting for and they made a clear decision to leave the EU, its treaties and its institutions. It was a clear and decisive vote in favour of repatriation of power and control. Leaving institutional setups like the EU's internal market, it was also a vote to decrease the burden of legislation. To argue otherwise is to ignore the facts: in its regulations, the EU represents a burden to businesses, the market and, most importantly, the peoples of Europe. Therefore, in voting to Leave the EU, the people of the UK voted to enhance their freedom from burdensome controls and not for more to be piled on.
The irony is that, although they claim to be supporters of the free market, what many of these so-called 'liberals' are asking for is nothing more than keeping ahold of the regulatory strings. What the people really want is the freedom to define their own lives - not be told what to do.
As such, bring on 2018 - hopefully one step closer towards a 'clean Brexit'. However, to ensure this happens we must continue our efforts to push forward the case both in Westminster and elsewhere. In order to remind people of why we voted leave and to tackle the Remoaner scare stories, the Better Off Out campaign launched the Stop Blair campaign last year. We are currently distributing leaflets across the UK, which you can order from our online shop, with more activities planned as the year goes on. If you would like to support our activities, please donate to the campaign. If you would like to help campaign for freedom, please become a member of The Freedom Association.
All views expressed in contributions by named authors are their own and may not reflect the views of The Freedom Association.