This first article is from one I do not know. He is a blogger for ConservativeHome (Can I sign up to do that too?) in the UK named Melanchthon. (I wonder if he is a Lutheran – there was a Philipp Melanchthon who was an early student of Luther and provided much of the intellectual support in the early days of the Reformation. Great name to use!) But perhaps he should be named Churchill or Nelson or Pitt, for this writer is a true Tory patriot. For what this writer calls for is for the United Kingdom to reclaim its sovereignty:
By October 28th we need Cameron to be saying that he favours a new EU Treaty and that the UK will use it to seek to repatriate powers. So there’s not much time to impress upon him and his team that they will ultimately have no choice here. We must convince them that their way to a quiet life on Europe is to renegotiate, not to seek to avoid renegotiation, and that the latter option would cause huge ructions on the Conservative side and make Europe a central issue of politics for the new five years. A good start from Eurosceptic backbenchers, though, with the rebellions over the Budget, the Bill Cash EDM and the pressure from Eurosceptics on Cameron over the weekend. Good show! Keep it up!
What Melanchthon calls for is a radical restructuring of the EU’s relationship with Great Britain; it’s a manifesto that every Tory – indeed every British citizen should call for their elected officials to adopt. Here it is:
- Britain must explicitly be exempted from the obligation to seek “ever closer union”. This is the single most important point. If we do not get this, little else will count for aught.
- It must be asserted that, in respect of the UK, conclusions of the European Court of Justice do not have independent legal force. They constitute only an arbitration over whether we are or are not in violation of our Treaty obligations. (This provision probably needs to be supplemented by some piece of British legislation (a “Sovereignty Act”) that changes the legal status for British bureaucrats of acting in ways that violate Treaty obligations – specifically, that they are not subject to malfeasance findings if they do.)
- We must withdraw from the common criminal space (the essence of which was already present in the Amsterdam Treaty).
- We must withdraw from the common defence force (ditto).
- We must withdraw from the common foreign service provisions of Lisbon.
- We must state that the UK shall not be bound by any measures under the passerelle clause of Lisbon, even if British representatives in the European Council vote in favour.
- We must state that the UK is not part of the single legal entity, for international negotiations, created by Lisbon.
- We must become “outs” of the euro project, not merely “pre-ins”.
This is just the start at re-negotiation; Melanchthon argues. Most think this will fail; the very first comment is that this is great but it won’t happen. I say, keep up the agitation. It could be, to paraphrase Churchill (one of my heroes), the finest hour of the British patriots to retake their sovereignty and to deliver a huge body blow to globalism!
There is encouraging news. The Guardian reports that PM David Cameron may bring up renegotiation to German Chancellor Merkel in return for a budget freeze:
The prime minister will indicate in Brussels on Thursday and Friday that Britain is prepared to link Germany’s demand for a new treaty to Britain’s call for a freeze in the EU budget. “The budget is very much on the prime minister’s mind. You can expect that … he will be raising it,” said a spokesman.
Recall that 37 Tory MP’s defied the party whips and voted on a freeze on the EU budget.
Speaking of defying the whip, the most independent member of the British Parliament elected in 2010 is none other than Young Turk David Nuttall! Way to go David!
Meanwhile, there is a Young Turk alert! ConservativeHome reports
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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