printSome say a North American Union à la the EU is a conspiracy theory. The people who say so have a nasty tendency of looking down on “bitter” types who prefer guns and god to the goons in government.
In contrast to deniers such as Michael Medved, there are authentic, credible conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Pat Buchanan who say the supra-state under construction is real, and is being covered-up.
In “Adieu to the Evil EU,” I explained a thing or two to the O’Reillys of the world who had been heaping scorn on the French for rejecting the centralized state American neocons were applauding at the time.
Here are some of the effects on the UK of joining the EU. O’Reilly and his fellow Fixers may find them appealing. As will Kaiser-in-Waiting, McCain:
“The effects of EU membership are complicated and have worked in part in conjunction with other international influences, primarily the incorporation into British law of the European Convention on Human Rights. EU law has taken primacy over UK law. As a result, Parliament is no longer what it was. While, in British constitutional tradition, Parliament could decide as it wanted, Parliament can now decide as it wants only provided that what it wants is in conformity with EU law. As a result, writes King, ‘British government today is shackled government to a far greater degree than it used to be’”.
“But that is only the beginning of the story. With European law comes also the European Court of Justice. British citizens can take the British government to court in Europe, and the European Court can find against the British government even if it is acting in accordance with British law. Furthermore, British citizens can take the British government to court in Britain on incompatibility between UK and EU law, and British courts can declare UK laws inoperable with reference to EU law. The same applies to human rights and the European Court of Human Rights. British citizens can appeal, in Britain or Europe, to a law that stands above laws enacted by their own Parliament. This represents a double transfer of power: from British elected to international non-elected institutions, and in Britain from Parliament to the courts. The courts have been handed a set of super-laws which they can use to test the validity of laws passed in Parliament, and thereby the power to override the will of Parliament.”
“The scope for judicial review by the courts has thereby been radically extended. But even that is not the end of it. With its new powers, the judiciary woke up from ‘a long sleep’, started to assert itself, and the senior judges metamorphosed into a political class of activists. The old doctrine that the courts only interpreted the law was thrown out in favour of a new doctrine by which the courts explicitly make law. ‘No one’, wrote Lord Denning, ‘can tell what the law is until the courts decide it.’ Judges were no longer only judges, but threw themselves into public debate, felt free to criticize lawmakers and ministers, chaired all kinds of commissions and so on. Under John Major, ‘war broke out between senior ministers and senior judges’”.
What a tragedy! I’m one of those “throwbacks” who believes that Britain and the U. S. should value our “special relationship,” based as it is on a common origin including a shared regard for traditional ethics, values, and law. I am very unhappy to see Britain sink deeper into Europe, as we in the U. S. sink deeper into the so-called “North American Union.”
U. S. traditions, values, and systems of law and justice derive from our British origins, which are not anything remotely “North American” or “European” in character. But even the Brits are apparently “forgetting” where they came from these days, in order to “amalgamate” with the Continent. It is too bad, because the traditional British system is far superior to any system of law and justice the European Union oligarchs might impose.
I hate to see the best (the British system) mowed down toward compliance with the “whole” (European Union.)
Living in the north of England I think EU membership a good thing. Thatcher practically destroyed local government, the EU by contrast promoted regional government (Welsh, Scottish, Ulster assemblies). It’s worth noting groups such as ETA and the IRA have virtually disappeared as a consequence. The big losers as far the EU is concerned are the old imperial capitals – London, Madrid, Brussels etc., the winners the regions.
Given the Labour Government’s relentless attack on liberties the European Court on Human Rights is a welcome counterbalance.
Nothing good has ever come from any centralized government. The ideas of
custom, tradition, nation, and citizenship have been eradicated from our daily lives, all at the behest of a “government” with no connection to the civic meaning of the word.
The worst of it is, “we the people” acquiesced. We continue to be bought off, and our price continues to plummet. In the distant past our price was an electrified rural America or super highway system, then we settled for cheap energy and cheaper food. Now, our infrastructure crumbles and our energy and food costs soar.
I don’t blame the panjandrums of the EU or the North American Union. They, like
wizards and alchemists of previous ages know their power lies not in their incantations and secret knowledge but in their ability to gull.
We moderns are far more gullible than those ancients. They only parted with their money and were made fools. We have descended from gullible to degenerate to
depraved, from freemen to serfs to slaves. All this at the hands of centralized national governments. What awaits us, what we become, at the hands of a centralized supranational dictatorship one can only imagine, with horror.
It is frightening to watch the slide down and think it will happen here. I suppose I’ll just go put on my bitter face and buy some more ammo.
I would of course expect winners in any change of law and or government. They may only be temporary winners, but winners none the less.