Day They Betrayed British Democracy
| AR Articles on Britain |
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| Whites as Kulaks (Jan. 2002) |
| Report from Britain (Sep. 2001) |
| Oldham Erupts (Jul. 2001) |
| No Representation (May 2001) |
| The Racial Transformation of Britain (Aug. 2000) |
| Black Crime in Britain (Apr. 1996) |
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Yesterday will go down in history as the day our politicians surrendered most of what was left of Britain’s sovereignty and trusted the nation’s future to a European superstate.
It will also go down as one of the blackest ever for our democracy.
With honourable exceptions—though far too few to affect the result—both Government and opposition MPs deliberately broke the solemn pledge they made to the electorate in 2005.
Every Labour candidate went into that election committed to an unequivocal pledge to call a referendum on what was then called the EU Constitutional Treaty—now known, after a few cosmetic tweaks, as the Lisbon Treaty.
Their manifesto said: “It is a good treaty for Britain and for the new Europe. We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign wholeheartedly for a “Yes” vote to keep Britain a leading nation in Europe.”
Not much room for misunderstanding there, was there?
Yet last night, the great majority of Labour MPs trooped through the division lobbies to vote against a referendum.
What hope is there for democracy, when MPs pledge one thing to get elected—and then do the exact opposite when the voters have given them their trust?
The LibDems’ official position, under their pathetic new leader Nick Clegg, has been every bit as morally contemptible—perhaps even more so.
Here, verbatim, is the party’s 2005 election pledge: “We are therefore clear in our support for the constitution, which we believe is in Britain’s interest—but ratification must be subject to a referendum of the British people.”
That didn’t mean, as Mr Clegg now pretends, the LibDems would demand a referendum on whether or not Britain should remain a member of the EU. It meant a commitment to a national vote on the constitution.
Yet last night, Mr Clegg ordered his MPs to abstain—thereby ensuring the treaty would be ratified without voters’ consent.
Breathtakingly, Mr Clegg tries to convince us he’s behaved honourably by demanding a referendum he never promised, while refusing to vote for the one he unmistakably did.
If he finds himself in big trouble today, after the rebellion by his less abject MPs, he richly merits it.
As for the Tories, most deserve credit at least for keeping their pledge and voting for a referendum. But, oh, what a half-hearted campaign they ran to persuade wavering MPs to back them.
As every opinion poll shows, there is huge support for a referendum. Yet the Tories totally failed to exploit it, while ducking the question of whether a Conservative government would call a national vote after the treaty has been ratified.
What we witnessed last night was the political class ganging up against the voters who gave them power.
The result—barring a miracle—is that Britain will now surrender its veto over 60 important areas of policy to the unelected bureaucracy in Brussels.
Meanwhile, we will be obliged to take orders from an unelected President of Europe—who, God forbid, may even be Tony Blair.
As the pettifogging regulations flood in from Brussels over the years ahead, there will be absolutely nothing we can do about it. And all because, on Wednesday March 5, 2008, British MPs decided en masse to break their word to the people—and surrendered the national independence for which their forefathers laid down their lives.
Is it any wonder that more and more Britons are losing their faith in the political process?
(Posted on March 6, 2008)
Comments
Why put the agreement to a vote if they don’t have to do it. Why put it to a vote if there is a chance it could not pass.
Just do it. What can the people do about it?
Posted by the Soviet Republic of New Jersey at 12:38 AM on March 7
Law can exert no authority except to the degree granted by the consent of the governed.
This is not the end of the road. Not for Britain, Europe or America. When still in school, I used to wonder why in every revolution, the elites were routinely rounded up, awarded the same fate as the nobility, the politicians and the criminals. Now I understand why.
No free man anywhere in the EU has any obligation to surrender his nation or his freedom. Most certainly not to rulers they have not ceded any authority to. Even then, any obligation ceases whenever the People declare it to be so. Free men are always entitled to replace their rulers, or their government, without prior notice to either.
Posted by Edward at 12:39 AM on March 7
Same here in USA as elected reps betray our laws and referendums for lobbies & foreign interests. The answer is to put them out of office and demand repeal of laws relinquishing UK sovereignty.
The global meltdown may aid the efforts to destroy our republics but politics is always local. Conservatives were our last barrier to the erosion of our Consitituion and republic and like the conservatives in UK, they are so soft and wobbly. Where are men of fortitude hiding? Certainly not in the halls of Congress or Parliament. Today the results of conformity rule. No one dare speaks their mind. Free speech forbid. Shiera laws are here! Vickie
Posted by Vickie at 2:27 AM on March 7
Treason pure and simple.
Posted by at 6:41 AM on March 7
If you study the whole sorry story of Britain’s membership of the EU, you will see that it is nothing but a sustained, overwhelming litany of lies, falsehoods and dictatorial bullying by unscrupulous politicians eager to subvert democracy and shut down debate and railroad Britain into what is a structurally profoundly undemocratic system (most of the Euro ‘pwer people’ are appointed and not elected)that has as its ultimate end the destruction of British natioanl independance and its subsumation into a federalist super-state of the ‘United States of Europe’.
Enoch Powell, that gifted visionary, pointed this out 40 years ago, but unfortunately his warnings passed right over the heads of the British electorate, due in no small part to papers like the Daily Mail mounting fanatical pro-EU propaganda campaigns.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 7:38 AM on March 7
The answer is to put them out of office
Sir, did you read the article - they DID elect people who PROMISED to NOT let the treaty be ratified without a vote.
We elect officials who make promises, they are elected, they break the promises and sell out to lobbies and back room deals - problem is its no longer contained locally - as in the past - the kingmakers are globalists now.
Posted by at 1:47 PM on March 7
I think I am more amazed that the polulace believed them in the first place.
Posted by GetBackJack at 1:49 PM on March 7
Admittedly, my interest (bordering instantly on fascination) with this story began when I clicked on this article, so I can hardly claim to be an expert on the matter based on the past hour or so of research I’ve been doing and several articles from varying sources I’ve read.
That said, what I have read leads me to believe that Britons should certainly have a vote on the matter. The arguments against a referendum have seemed to consist of little substance, and much arrogance. Not to mention an obvious and barely veiled contempt for the British people.
My favorite quote so far:
Two men scaled a crane near Parliament yesterday and unfurled banners demanding a referendum on the treaty. Jim Murphy, the Europe minister, said: “The place to make these decisions is in this chamber – not on a crane halfway above the city sky of London.”,
-Lifted from The Independent UK, 3-4-08 article by Andrew Rice and Ben Russell.
If this mentality is typical of politicians in Britain and the EU, the continent is in deep trouble.
Also, a couple of bits I read on Europa.com, which heavily displayed favor for the treaty while simultaneously being light on its specifics, raised so many red flags with me that my brain felt like a Russian warship.
Posted by BW Sam at 5:21 PM on March 7
If there is any hope for democracies it lies in the people electing “third parties” with platforms radically different from those of the ruling parties. All of the parties that have been in power for more than a couple of decades are globalist traitors working for the same ends. Here in the U.S. the Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin, and they are running our country into the ground almost as fast as Britain’s government is running it into the ground.
Posted by screaming eagle at 7:57 PM on March 7
“What hope is there for democracy, when MPs pledge one thing to get elected—and then do the exact opposite when the voters have given them their trust?”
— — — — — —
We have gotten used to seeing this sort of thing in the USA too. Same problem. Same deceptions.
What we all desperately need is a way, a mechanism, for holding politicians accountable to their word. Otherwise, they will tell you anything to get your vote, then once in office they contemptuously do whatever they want —- the public be damned.
Posted by browser at 10:47 PM on March 7
The answer is to put them out of office.
Vickie
Sir, did you read the article - they DID elect people who PROMISED to NOT let the treaty be ratified without a vote.
— — — — — —
Well then, the voters put them INTO office. But now the chore is to put them OUT of office. Getting rid of them becomes quite another thing.
Posted by browser at 3:40 AM on March 8
BW sam,
There is one reason and one reason only the british government renaged on its manifesto promise to hold a referendum: It knows it will lose it.
This from the same people who berate Vladimir Putin day in day out for a ‘lack of democracy’ and holding ‘rigged elections’.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 7:29 AM on March 8
I can remember when the talk of joining the Common Market started in Britain decades ago. A reluctant and cautious British public was constantly reassured, “Trust us, it’s just about trade, you’ll get cheap tomatoes all year round Woohoo!!” For post-war Britons who were just getting over the misery of food rationing this sounded like heaven on earth, normally they had to wait until May when fruit came in from the Canary Islands. So we didn’t put up too much of a fight, after all weren’t the Continentals our friends now? It was all lies and thanks to Algore’s internet we can mouth off about it, but judging from comments here, we all want to do more.
I ‘m mulling over what Browser said:
“What we all desperately need is a way, a mechanism, for holding politicians accountable to their word”
.
Watching once stable nations crumbling under the weight of immigration, importation of hostile, alien peoples, EU policies and control makes one feel helpless because who does one turn to if not the government to protect the nation and people. Like Browser, I feel very strongly that it is not enough just to vote them out of office. It makes me sick to watch them feed off the lecture tour, go back to heading corporations or living of a fat pension (us). Surely if they knew that they would be punished for lying and deceiving their employers (us), they might be less inclined to cheat and lie. A company employee would be sacked without pay for similar behaviour and here we are talking about wrecking not corporations or businesses, but entire nations. Anyone have any ideas?
Arc.
Posted by Arcadian at 10:36 AM on March 9
“I feel very strongly that it is not enough just to vote them out of office. It makes me sick to watch them then go and feed off the lecture tour, go back to heading corporations, or living off a fat pension (us). Surely if they knew that they would be punished for lying and deceiving their employers (us), they might be less inclined to cheat and lie. “
“A company employee would be sacked for similar behaviour; and here we are talking about wrecking not corporations but entire nations.”
Arc
— — — — — —
Yes. They have to be made to know and understand that reneging on their oath will not happen without serious consequences and that breaking faith with their constitents will not be without penalty. There will be fewer contenders for public office, yes, but they will be better and more honest ones. As it is now, there is no penalty attached to the most brazen acts of betrayal and deceit once they manage to worm their way in. The whole object right now is to get IN. Somehow! Anyhow! After that, they’re home free and can do whatever they please. They become all but unanswerable to anyone — at least until the next election. (And a lame duck politician like Bush doesn’t even care about the next election.)
After such abuse of the power entrusted to them by the public, and their contempt shown to that public, that these charlatans should move on to private lives of honor and affluence is a further outrage.
The first step must be to get such brazen connivers out of office. The NEXT step must be appropriate PUNISHMENT for their abuse of that office. As it is now, we have taken neither step, and (except perhaps in the most egregious cases) we have no procedure for it. Our system still needs much “fine-tuning”.
Of course, that will not be easy, as The Powers That Be obviously like the arrangement exactly as it is. Those with the necessary money can buy the results they want, and the public be damned. For them, honest politicians would be an inconvenience.
Posted by browser at 5:34 PM on March 9
Once again we see the utter failure of modern democracy. The overwhelming majority of the people want one thing, whether it be a referendum, immigration reform, border security, lower taxes, you name it, and the elites do the exact opposite. If they are voted out, they are simply replaced by similar elites who do exactly the same thing.
The elites’ fear of popular government, in the form of a referendum, clearly demonstrates that that are not a government representative of the “people”. In such a situation, democracy is utterly broken and solutions within the system become impossible.
Imagine if after Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speach, the British government had had the courage to hold a referendum on the question of unlimited British citizenship for the former colonies—-there is no question in my mind that the vote would have been a resounding endorsement of Powell’s position. Yet, what really happened? The government opened the borders to literally billions of third world immigrants, granting them British citizenship(think India alone for the numbers) and the country was inundated by such immigration.
A democracy that does not represent the will of the people may be “democratic” in form, but is totalitarian in substance. That is what we have today not only in Britain but in the US as well. I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would have advised us to do in this situation. Remember “the tree of liberty”?
Posted by at 11:10 AM on March 10
“Once again we see the utter failure of modern democracy. The overwhelming majority of the people want one thing … and the elites do the exact opposite. If they are voted out, they are simply replaced by similar elites who do exactly the same thing. In such a situation, democracy is utterly broken and solutions within the system become impossible.”
— — — — — — — —
In the original years of the great American experiment in self-rule, our early statesmen were dedicated men who took a few years out of their private lives to donate them to their country as a community service and patriotic duty. They expected nothing. Then they returned to their private affairs. People like Franklin did not expect to get rich or enhance themselves from this patriotic service, which was actually costly to them personally. Some, such as Washington and Jefferson, spent more (of their own money) as presidents than they earned in that position. Jefferson even went bankrupt and lost his plantation due to the heavy expenses of being president. To such men there was no concept of being a “professional” politician. Politics was seen by them as a public service, not a career choice.
In not too much time, this new democratic form of government was seen by the rising financial/commercial element as the ideal system to fit their interests. It enabled the richest bidders to buy whatever laws best suited them and to sponsor (or smother ) whatever politicians or causes they wished. Politics became no longer a noble calling, a selfless public service, but a mere occupation — like that of dentist or anything else. The people they served remained generally behind the scenes.
In order to keep their jobs, today’s professional politicians have to please the powerful people who finance their campaigns and who manipulate public opinion (thus the vote) via the media. Noble ideals and service to the nation no longer have anything to do with it. It’s just a matter of earning a living and fawning upon the hand that feeds you. Our politicians will lick whatever hand feeds them the best.
Posted by browser at 4:18 AM on March 12