The Mike Nattrass Column for the Rock & District News
July 2012
Albert Einstein provided one definition of madness as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The EU appear to indulge in this behaviour with the "Do it again until you get it right referendums"- the Irish cure and then the "Give them the money again and again until you stop begging" - the Greek cure.
Treating a patient involves prescribing the right treatment. Giving sick countries a pack of economic sticking plasters will only prolong their illness.
Spain recently became the fourth eurozone patient to ask for aid and has received a temporary painkiller from the mad bank doctor. Will they come back for more? .... you can bank on it!
You can gauge the ability of EU monetary advisers by the state of the single currency. Even the German Chancellor doesn't laugh about the Euro, in fact she can't even "wangle a smirkle".
It is time our Government faced the EU money monster and gave the British taxpayer an EU referendum. The Germans and the UK foot the bill, so the UK taxpaying piper should be allowed to call the tune.
A new Populus survey shows eight out of ten Brit's want a referendum and more than half of respondents want an immediate vote to take place regarding Britain 's membership of the EU.
Last year, I, along with Nikki Sinclaire MEP and Trevor Colman MEP, travelled to London to deliver a petition of 100,000 signatures calling for a straight "In or Out" EU referendum.
The petition, which was launched in the West Midlands , was presented to Number 10 Downing Street last September. Our action, which was cross-party, triggered a Commons debate with the Lib-Lab-Con Party giving urgent three line whips, for all to vote against. Pleasingly a number of MPs revolted to embarrass their parties, but the plea for a referendum was denied, despite vote catching election policies to the contrary.
It is clear, from the results of the Populus survey that the vast majority of British people want a straight "In or Out" EU membership referendum.
Euro-fanatic Ken Clarke, who is a long-time locum assisting the EU mad doctor, prompted a backlash when he described supporters of a referendum as ‘a few extreme nationalists’.
Maybe he should take some medicine himself and recognise it is the majority and not a minority of the British people who want their views to be heard on Europe . Can he not see that Europe is for inward looking isolationists, whereas there is a whole world out there, including 54 Commonwealth Countries, pleading for trade.
When we joined the Common Market we were told it was about trade. Ted Heath lied to the British people when he advised people to vote for EU membership, with a promise of ‘no loss of UK national sovereignty’. Years later Heath admitted his goal had been ‘ever closer political union’ and now the C of E are proposing a plaque to glorify his memory in Westminster Abbey. On this basis, no doubt Mr Quisling will be entitled to a plaque at Traitors Gate somewhere in darkest Norway .
The EU Parliament has created more laws for us than Westminster has made since 1485 and the battle of Bosworth Field . Our nation’s sovereignty has been eroded by the EU which is about political domination, or as the EU President frequently says "This is the New European Empire into which we have all pooled our Sovereignty" at which point I shout "Oh no we didn't" at the EU pantomime in Strasbourg .
So can we settle this issue, once and for all, and have a straight In or Out referendum on EU Membership? With the correct vote we could then prescribe our own medicines and remedies to treat our own ills.
To quote Einstein once more “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who won’t do anything about it”.