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Treaty is still a threat

A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 1st November 1993.

It was written by Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Labour Life Peer and Chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain), Sir Richard Body (Conservative MP and one of the Maastricht rebels) Austin Mitchell (Labour MP and vice-chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain), Professor Stephen Bush (vice-chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain), Dr Martin Holmes, Norris McWhirter, Lord Jay, Ron Leighton (Labour MP), Sir Teddy Taylor (Conservative MP and one of the Maastricht rebels), Dr Alan Sked (first leader of UKIP), Peter Dul (Anti-Common Market League) and Charlotte Horsfield (The British Housewives’ League).

Today the Maastricht Treaty comes into force and all British citizens are, without their consent, thereby conscripted as citizens of the European Union with obligations yet to be defined.

Many British politicians, including those on the Conservative and Labour front benches, appear to believe that with Britain’s exit from the ERM last year and the ERM’s virtual collapse in August, the Maastricht Treaty is essentially a dead letter. They could not be more wrong.

Despite the well publicised misgivings in Germany and France, the European Commission is determined to extract the absolute maximum from the authority over member countries which the Maastricht Treaty gives them.

Under Article 103, the Treaty requires member countries to submit national accounts for inspection by the Commission and to co-ordinate their economic policies, striking at the heart of Britain’s freedom to sustain its fragile recovery.

We, who have been consistently opposed to the imposition of the Maastricht Treaty without the explicit approval of the British people, will continue to fight its implementation. Instead, we aim for a self-governing Britain that will regain its freedom to trade unhindered with the whole world, including the Pacific Rim countries, with many of whom we have unique ties of history and language.

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Festering effects of Euroism

A letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph which was published on 5th June 1992.

While those few of us who have fought for years against the loss of British self-government to the EC welcome all converts to our cause, it is a pity that the majority of those 100 or so Tory MPs signing the motion welcoming Denmark’s decision to veto the Maastricht Treaty did not find the courage to vote aginst the second reading of the Maastricht Bill last week.

The Prime Minister’s absurd decision to press on with ratification is additional evidence, if any were needed, that Euroism is more to do with politicians’ job opportunities than those of our young people, 800,000 of whom are out of work.

Europe, in fact, has become both the reason and the excuse for doing nothing about the related and endemic problems of unemployment, the shrinkage of our manufacturing industry and our mounting trade deficit.

To solve these problems needs, among other things, heavy concentration on those markets of the world which are growing rapidly – and these happen to be mainly on the Pacific rim where the majority of the world’s manufacturing capacity is situated.

This is not to neglect European markets, but to recognise that the major expansion of Britain’s trade there has already taken place. The fastest rate of expansion of British exports to a major economy in the last few years has, in fact, been to Japan.

Such a refocusing of Britain’s priorities should include the Commonwealth. Here Britain, with its unique ties of kinship and history, has an opportunity to influence that important section of the Third World which we know most about towards an effective relationship with the First – the necessity of which the Rio Conference demonstrates.

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