SIMON HEFFER AND THE ALMOST OBVIOUS

Simon Heffer writing in the Daily Telegraph today (31st October 2009) would have struck a cord with all those in the Euro realist movement when he stated in the heading of his article: “We either give up the EU – or give in”. He wrote about the effects of the Lisbon Treaty and what effect it will also have on the Conservative Party which at some stage may have to lance the boil within its ranks and tackle the EU problem once and for all.

He is absolutely correct in all he says in his article, a decision about leaving the EU or accepting the fact that as part of the it we will cease to exist as a nation is one we need to take – the sooner the better.

Although he was spot on with the fact that our sovereignty will be seriously undermined and eventually destroyed by the EU, the one problem he failed to point out within the Lisbon Treaty is that once enacted we will have to ask the EU for permission to leave.

Under that scenario we will then lose all voting rights but will still be expected to obey all EU regulations and directives – and continue to hand over many billions of our money a year as net contributors. During this period the other members of the EU will contemplate whether or not we can leave – this can take up to four years or so.

In 2004 I presented a case, prepared by a retired magistrate, in the Walsall Magistrates Courts against Tony Blair, David Blunkett and Lords Goldsmith and Falconer for treason by agreeing to the EU constitution. The case was thrown out as the incoming Labour Government in 1997 had quietly repealed the Acts of Treason we based our case on in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.

In the court on that morning I was asked by the District Judge what the EU would do if we just left anyway. I informed him that as the treaty then, as does the Lisbon Treaty now, includes a provision for the creation of a European wide defence force, in theory the EU could send in the tanks just as the USSR did in Prague.

In my mind there can be no choice between in or out – it has to be out.