The Rise and Rise of the European Superstate

Today, the European Union officially comes into being as a legal political entity. It has a President and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs. It has an internal police force who can remove citizens from their homelands to face trial and imprisonment in foreign countries, via a legal mechanism specifically designed to "abolish the political stage of extradition" that can be invoked even when a person is tried and convicted in absentia.

The political elite of this new superstate are selected behind closed doors, not elected by those they purport to represent. Their laws are decided in a parliament that purports to represent hundreds of millions. That legislation is then implemented directly by subservient politicians at national level, with deadlines set and enforceable penalties if they refuse to comply. In the UK, most of this is achieved via secondary legislation such as Statutory Instruments and Regulations, which bypass the normal Parliamentary debating process.

The last national referendum held on membership of the EU was in 1975, meaning that nobody in the UK under the age of 52 has ever had a say on the replacement of Parliament by this unaccountable organisation. Who voted for the creation of a new state over our heads? Why would we want this new layer of taxpayer-funded bureaucracy leaching ever more of our hard-earned wages from our hands?

We can't even hold it to account. Its Supreme Court answers to nobody and cannot be held in check by democratically elected personnel. Merely by writing this article, I am committing blasphemy against the EU - this is the word clearly inferred by the EU's Spanish inquisitor-general in the linked Spectator article.

Speaking of legal systems, the EU also seeks to impose the alien napoleonic legal code upon us. The napoleonic code works from the basic premise that "everything is forbidden unless strictly authorised in law", in direct opposition to English common law where "nothing is forbidden unless strictly banned in law". Further, the EU's legal systems are written around the inquisitorial system of justice, where the judge researches and considers the evidence in a court case by himself. The system used in Britain and America is known as the adversarial system, where the right to trial by a jury of one's peers and the right of appeal are enshrined in law.

This terrifying juggernaut rolls on, blatting private citizens out of its way like bugs squashed on a windshield.


On a completey unrelated note, I've just heard New Young Pony Club's latest track "Lost A Girl" on the radio. Cracking stuff!

Spain "uses EU legislation to control Gibraltar seas"

For over 300 years, the old Rock has been a symbol of British pride in the Mediterranean. Since the 19th century Gibraltar has proven its worth to the Royal Navy, especially during the prolonged convoy battles against Hitler's U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. Spain has long maintained a territorial claim over Gibraltar, basing this on spurious grounds of "territorial integrity" and falling back on skewed interpretations of UN resolutions. (yes, it's a wikipedia link, but it's also a fairly accessible guide to what was said and why, complete with backing references)

The latest in a long string of incursions and abortive Spanish attempts at reclaiming the Rock is an attempt to use EU environmental protocols to gain control over Gibraltarian territorial waters. What alarms me about this latest effort is the complicity of EU bureaucrats and the subversion of the green agenda into an instrument of Spanish foreign policy. While it is not in doubt that the 2002 referendum on joint sovereignty removed any doubts over the wishes of Gibraltarians themselves, the Spanish have pressed on regardless with their efforts to recapture the isthmus.

The worrying thing is that such moves come at a time when the Royal Navy is facing near-complete overstretch (to the point where Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels are undertaking essential duties once covered by HM Ships) and Britain's ability to withstand incursions by Spanish assets into British sovereign waters are vastly reduced. The Gibraltar patrol squadron consists of two 21-tonne boats (see HMS Sabre, above) that look little reduced from pleasure cruising craft; what hope do we have if the Spanish really make a move against British interests?

As much as it goes against my anti-EU instincts to trust any of that hopelessly corrupt institution's organs, I do hope the Gibraltar government's application to the European high court pays off and reverses this pernicious decision. Watch this space.