LETTER: EU all about lies and deceit

The flawed crystal ball gazed into by John Harmer (letters, Observer, March 24), reveals a lack of confidence in the British people to run their own affairs.

On one point I do agree with him, that is, the poor decisions by government since the second world war of both political parties. At the top of the list of mistakes I would put joining the Common Market/EU!

On the assurance of Edward Heath, that the UK would not lose any sovereignty, I voted for us to join the Common Market. Several years later Heath admitted he had lied to the electorate. The EU has been maintained by lies and deceit ever since. In a letter dated November 12, 1996, to His Excellency Monsieur Jacques Santer, who was President of the European Union Commission from 1995 t0 1999, John Major, our Prime Minister at that time, makes it absolutely clear that had he not been misled (deceived) he would never have signed the Maastricht Treaty.

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Have you noticed that the pro-EU enthusiasts are not disclosing what the EU has in store for us? My crystal ball suggests economically, should we vote to remain in the EU, we shall become poorer and less able to compete in world markets. Professor Patrick Minford CBE, macroeconomist of Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, has stated that should the UK leave the EU, the cost of living here could reduce by as much as eight per cent! Yes, I know, another crystal ball, but one which has more credibility than that consulted by John Harmer.

Perhaps John Harmer is one of the five per cent to ten per cent who benefit from our EU membership at the expense of the other 90-plus per cent of the population.

What does not need the assistance of a crystal ball is that, if we remain in the EU, our legal system will be trashed, thus losing our well tried laws and traditions, for example: in the UK, the state draws its powers from, and answers to, the people.

In the EU, the state exists in its own right and the people answer to it.

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Here, our rights and freedoms are our birth-right. In the EU, they are granted and removed by the state.

Here, everything is permitted until our elected parliament decides otherwise. In the EU, everything is implicitly forbidden unless the state decides to allow it.

Here, we have the common law safeguards of Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the presumption of innocence. The EU uses the Napoleonic system of criminal law. It provides no such safeguards against the oppression of the state.

Here, we uphold and respect the rule of law – at least, in part, because we can change it at any time. In the EU, there is less respect for the laws made in Brussels, because they are almost impossible to change.

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Here, the police exist to uphold the law, and the armed forces to defend the realm. In the EU, they both exist as arms of the state.

Here, we do not tolerate fraud and corruption in public office or anywhere else. In the EU, it is endemic and accepted as part of the system. I rest my case.

Derek Hunnikin

St Leodegars Way

Hunston

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