Thursday, November 25, 2010

Took you long enough.

The UK as a whole is largely EUsceptic, a lot of us want out as we believe we could do far better for ourselves outside rather than inside, selling to all rather than subsidising a trade cartel. The UK has always in the past been a trader on a world scale, rather than on a local scale, which is what mainland Europe tended to do, particularly the further inland you got. Largely EUsceptic means the public at large of course, the political classes on the whole aren't, never have been either, they see it as aggrandising their power rather than giving away our sovereignty, after all the bigger the block, supposedly the more power it has, though in the case of the EU, power resides in the hands of a few apparatchiks rather than politicians. Still it's nice to see that one of the MSM have finally caught up with the thinking of the common folk.

Express.
THE Daily Express today becomes the first national newspaper to call for Britain to leave the European Union.
From this day forth our energies will be directed to furthering the cause of those who believe Britain is Better Off Out.
The famous and symbolic Crusader who adorns our masthead will become the figurehead of the struggle to repatriate British sovereignty from a political project that has comprehensively failed.
After far too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference, the time has come for the British people to win back their country and restore legitimacy and accountability to their political process.
Following the debacle of the Lisbon Treaty – disgracefully imposed upon the public without the referendum they were promised by the three main political parties – many had expected matters European to take a lower profile in British politics.
But the opposite has been true as those on board the European gravy train have mounted one power grab after another.
At a time of austerity throughout Europe they have expanded their bloated budgets, pushing Britain’s disproportionate contributions even higher.
And despite not being part of the failing eurozone, British taxpayers have learned that under Brussels rules agreed to by Labour after it had lost the election they are liable to help bail out economies wrecked by the single currency.
I wonder how long this will last, most newspaper campaigns fizzle out after a week or two, but still it's nice to see them announcing what the majority have been feeling for about 20 years or so, still I suspect some critical threshold has been passed in some private poll for the Express group, though I'd have laid odds on it being the Daily Mail first.
It will be interesting too, which of our politicians break ranks (other than the obvious ones of Carswell and Hannan) to support this campaign, the better off out group will be one, but will any of the big names come out and support it? I guess it will depend on how much pressure can be brought to bear, if they see votes going to it they'll follow the votes. If not I suspect a possible UKIP landslide in the next EU elections possibly pushing the Tories into second place, now there's a nice thought.

Their petition can be signed here.

6 annotations:

opsimath said...

Signed it, thanks for the tip. I don't suppose it will do one iota of good, but it's bumped my Happiness Index up by at least 0.07%.

Curmudgeon said...

If the Coalition are at the height of unpopularity in 2014 when the next Euro elections are held, there must be a strong chance of UKIP topping the poll, as no sceptical voters will support the even more pro-EU Labour.

Mind you, the EU might have collapsed by then ;-)

Anonymous said...

I wonder, in all seriousness, why it is that if, as you suggest (and i agree) Brits by and large think that no matter how stupid, incompetent and ridiculous the British politicians are; no matter how much worse it is to live here than many other European countries, Brits don't want any filthy foreigners who have the audacity not to speak English, eat foreign food that isn't English, have quivering upper lips as opposed to the stiff ones on this side of the channel, who shed tears when they are sad, as opposed to the proper British way of ignoring emotion, and who have table manners like...well not like Englishmen, to tell them what to do.

Why is it that even old margeret hilda, who hated foreigners more than most (except Americans), "God put 20 miles of water between the English and the French for a good reason" did not try to take us out.

I mean the woman must have known there were votes in it. The Brits would have made her a saint, and she would have stuffed Ted Heath as a bonus...

PS... if God put 20 miles between the Brits and the French for a reason, why did he put 3000 miles of water between the English and the Americans?

Quiet_Man said...

It's not about hating Europeans Tris, I have no problem with Europeans, my good lady is half German and her mother fully German. It's about leaving the EU, we can't reform it back to a trading group and we have a political system inclined to keep us in it politically no matter what.

Anonymous said...

I didn't say, btw, that you hate Europeans, but mrs t most certainly did. Why did she take us in deeper despite her mistrust of everything foreign?


Seriously, do you see what I’m saying? If we had a referendum tomorrow there would be an 80% out vote. Why does no prime minister buy popularity by coming out. Within a year sever all ties and be the independent kingdom of great Britain and NI?

Suggest it to Dave. Then we wouldn’t have to have any of the silly rules on human rights. The Daily mail would go wild with joy, and we all know every government legislates with one eye on the daily mail and the other on mr Murdoch

Quiet_Man said...

I think cast iron Dave like most of the political class are in love with the idea of the EU and its gravy train aspect. When the people you mix with and deal with are of one type of thinking (senior civil servants too) then your thinking matches them, plus the "we know best" attitude along with the belief that the EU is not important in the mind of the electorate all reinforce the attitude of "better off in"
It will take a massive defeat in the polls or a UKIP surge to put the nail in the coffin of the federasts in order to force the issue to the surface. Yes a lot of people want out, but most aren't really being offered the choice and it isn't (until possibly now) that important too them.