Doing it our way
December 7th, 1988
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 7th December 1988.
In your editorial (Dec. 2nd) you allude once again to that mysterious “influence” which we stand to win if we submerge our nationhood still further in the EEC. What is this influence and what is it for?
To many British people it looks like nothing more than politicians’ ineradicable desire to participate in important-sounding international meetings and conferences, away from the boring job of grappling with Britain’s everlasting economic problems. In any case, in what sense can we – that is, the nation of Britain – win anything if we no longer exist as an independent country?
What most British people want is to get back the real right to govern themselves: to set their own speed limits, daylight saving time, blood alcohol limits, taxes and weights and measures – in fact to do what even the tiniest of the 139 non-EEC countries of the UN can do – without having to ask some outside body for permission.