I was strongly in favour of the original Common Market that Britain joined; it was a fine project that had a realistic objective. But the Maastricht Treaty put an end to all that. At this point, in 1992, the emphasis switched to federal union.
In the following years, the EU has hoovered up almost every country that might consider itself European, so that currently we are a grouping of 28.
I can see how many of these countries would wish to be a part of a strong federal Europe.
All of Europe (except the UK Irish Republic and Switzerland) has, in relatively recent times, suffered invasion (Napoleon, Hitler, Russia) or civil war, with their civic structures demolished and rebuilt perhaps many times.
By contrast, in the UK we have a Parliamentary Democracy that dates back to 1215 and a legal system with roots that are even older.
Now, we find that both our Parliament and that legal system are subservient to EU law and the democratic accountability of those imposing EU legislation is non-existent.
The UK is already a union of four countries – and a union that works.
We now need to focus on getting the ‘right deal’ with our erstwhile EU partners and move forward.
Maybe, if the EU were to fundamentally re-programme itself and drop the dogmatic attitudes and sclerotic bureaucratic responses, we Brexiteers might become less rebellious.
David HOMEWOOD, by email
