eurealist.co.uk

So, David Blunkett has resigned, this is after weeks of telling us all that he had done nothing wrong, then some e-mails come to light that point towards evidence of fast tracking the visa for his girlfriends nanny, he suddenly remembers that possible just possible he did do something that requires his resignation.

Of course we believe him don’t we, the television hacks certainly do, watching Cannel 4 news this evening was a sickening display of sycophantic concern for this honest Blind politician, who although being Blind had risen to top of his profession, which just goes to show what a marvellous society we live in, when a Blind person can against all the odds become Home Sectary, and what a wonderful honest Blind politician he was, who did not used the fact that he was Blind to ask for any special privileges, not that anyone would suggest that their concern was because Blunket was Blind of course not.

Apart for the sycophantic burbling from John Snow, we were treated to interviews with various colleagues, who all spouted about how honest and Blind, Blunkett was and what a great Blind man, and a fantastically difficult it must have been when being a Blind man, his wife left him on the very night he was elected to parliament, and we are sure we have not seen the last of him.

Now just to put things in perspective this is a politician who used his position to gain favours he has been found out and has had to resign when he could hang on no longer. He is not a hero, if he were a policeman he would have been suspended until the facts of the case were investigated, he would then have been dismised and probably prosecuted for fraud.

Now strange as it may seem, I do not really care that Blunkett used his position to obtain a favour for a friend, or that as his friend he spent £180 of public money on a train ticket for them, I do care when a major news channel goes all out to tell us all what a great man he is, and what a loss to the party if not the country, his going will be. Normally Channel 4 news although strictly liberal left is one of the better outlets on British television, they always cover more stories, in more depth and with more insight than the other news choices, but I think Blunkett resignation got the better of them tonight, he is after all only one more in a fairly long list of disgraced politicians who have had to leave their post.

There seems to be some sort of impression in the minds of many Eurosceptics that Britain is now under the domination of some sort of devilish continental European elite that is accountable to no one and controls all aspects of our lives. (In the case of pro-Europeans, they obviously control our minds too!) It certainly makes for great propaganda. The trouble is that even a relatively dim light of logic can reveal that it is all nonsense. The sad reality is that there is no such elite.

James, at Lose the Delusion has a post Scaring The Masses in which he argues that there is “no European elite that is accountable to anyone one and controls all aspects of our lives”. I would take issue with that concept on several fronts firstly it is an attempt, possibly subconsciously, to convey the image that the EU is somehow democratic, secondly it denies the historical contexts of the union and thirdly is suggests that the we that people actually have a say in matters EU.

Although I welcome the opportunity to debate these maters with a confirmed yet reasonable Pro-European, I do have some sympathy with problems of attempting to refute a soundly based Eurosceptic premise that the EU is not Democratic. All we need to do is to look at the writings of the founding fathers to give the lie to any dispute. Without doubt the EU has a great problem at the moment because it has been constructed on shaky ground without any legality other than its own, which is based on very shaky treaties that if they were ever seriously challenged in just about any European country would prove to be unsustainable.

For instance:
Act of 1972 authorized the ratification of Community treaties, applied the force of European law to the domestic order, and also ensured its primacy - in the event Parliament did not decide differently. This Act has since been followed by others in relation to the Single European Act and the Treaty of European Union. British courts have interpreted these principles to ensure the primacy of European law unless the will of Parliament is unequivocally not to comply with Community obligations

However to return to the plot;
It is difficult to argue that there is no European Elite, when the whole project to date has been conducted by an elite technocratic High Authority, which has not been run by politicians of the European nation states; it was designed to be a body of experts and administrators, coming from the nation states, but independent from them and loyal to the European idea. Each Commissioner swears to oath of elegance to the EU alone they swear not to take instructions from any other body.

Monnet, who instigated the method to be used to integrate Europe, knew that the various sovereign states of Europe would not naturally agree to give up their powers to a Supra national construct. So the way to unite Europe would be to get them to work together under the umbrella of the Union on common interests, and convince them to act on these to achieve certain separate interests, this would condition the governments and the people in co-operation and institutionalise that cooperation under the control of the Union. Given time, Europe would become united without realising it, as common projects would lead European states to pool their sovereignties.

At its core was the concept of ‘spill over, that once initially triggered, European integration would be self-sustaining. Initial co-operation on partial, projects would get the internal dynamics of the community going, leading it to further, co-operation. Cooperation in one sector would gradually require co-operation in other sectors. The peoples support was not necessary in fact it was not wanted, this was to follow later as loyalties would be ‘redirected’ from the national to the European level.
But the whole plan rested not on democratic decisions taken by democratically accountable governments but on that central driving force of technocratic elitism: The EU Commision.

To now try to suggest that there is no central European Elite is to deny historical and present day fact, the Commissions main, in fact its only job is to be the driving force towards European integration in this it is supported by the ECJ.

The problem the EU has is that it now must resurrect another of Monnet’s ideas to proceed with its goals, and that is political integration, hence we see the EU Constitution, it is vital for the process to continue. But now finaly they are being forced to consult the people, we at last are to be allowed a say in this project but because it is so vital we can expect a great deal of confusing data to emerge, and as Britian is by and large ambivalent to the EU much of the flack will be heading this way.