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Telegraph | Opinion | Scaremongering Straw: “Scaremongering Straw
(Filed: 10/02/2005)

Listeners to yesterday morning’s Today programme may be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that the Foreign Secretary has not actually read the 448 articles of the proposed European Constitution. According to Jack Straw, the document represents a triumph for Britain’s national interests. Not only will it make the European Union more efficient, he says, but it will also give national governments and national parliaments a much greater say in the running of the EU.

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How, then, does Mr Straw explain Article 1 (6) of the constitution, which states baldly: ‘This constitution shall have primacy over the laws of the member states’? And how does he interpret Article 1 (11): ‘Member states shall exercise their competence to the extent that the EU ceases to exercise, or chooses no longer to exercise, its competence’? Does he think that these words are simply meaningless - a random collection of hieroglyphs, assembled in no particular order, signifying nothing? Isn’t it far more likely that they mean exactly what they say: that the constitution will allow the eurocracy in Brussels to overrule the wishes of the people of Britain whenever it chooses?

Mr Straw also assured his listeners that the constitution would leave Britain in full control of its foreign policy. How does that assurance square with Article 1 (15) of the document, which insists unequivocally: ‘Member states shall support the EU’s common foreign and security policy actively and unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity’?

In his remarks yesterday, Mr Straw constructed a second line of defence for the constitution, against those who are unimpressed by his assurances that it poses no threat to our sovereignty. A popular vote against the constitution, he said, would throw Britain into ‘crisis’. This is pure scaremon”