The Light's on at Signpost by George MacDonald Fraser Page B

issue is irrelevant, and all that matters is satisfying the five economic criteria for Britain’s entry into the euro. In fact, this is the least of what matters, except to the money-grubbers;economic conditions change like the tide, but the right to freedom does not. What matters above all is sovereignty, the right to make our own laws (thrown away with the incorporation of the mad and disgusting European Convention on Human Rights into our domestic law, which has already caused disruption in our courts), the right to remain independent of the unworthy, undemocratic, unprincipled, authoritarian, bureaucratic rabble of Brussels. That, first, last, and every time, is what matters, and “economic criteria” pale into irrelevance.
    We do not need the euro, the Monopoly money which begins to bear a close resemblance to the French Revolutionary assignat and the Weimar currency. Those who do want it parrot the cry that common currency will not lead to political union, but that is a falsehood wasted, for everyone knows that political union, the declared aim, would be inevitable. The British people have shown that they want neither, and a growing number (including a former prime minister) would like to see us out of Europe altogether. It is probably the knowledge of this that has driven the scaremongering of the Europhiles to the point of desperation.
    My fear, and it is a growing one, is that pusillanimous, foolish, and dishonest politicians will complete the process begun by Heath in 1972, and that Britain will become a helpless cog in the European machine, a mere province of the Holy Brussels Empire without real power or influence in the face of our traditional enemies. Babble about being “at the heart of Europe” is wishful thinking.
    My hope, and it is a fervent but slender one, is in two stages. First, I hope to see the British public resist the propaganda onslaught of the pro-Europeans, in which the broadcast media, led by the BBC, have shown themselves willing tools of the government, and vote a resounding “no” in the referendum, if and when it comes. I believe they will, in spite of Blair’s patronising arrogance in suggesting that Britons can be “educated” into compliance once he has explained things to them.
    Given a “no” vote it is unlikely that Blair, even under the bullying of his French and German friends, would have the nerve to reject it, much as he might like to. If it were anything better than waferthin he would be perfectly capable of leaping on the pro-British bandwagon, no doubt trying to pretend that he had only been with the Europeans to spy on them.
    My second stage, whether a referendum were “no” or not, is less probable. I want to see the whole rotten edifice of the EU collapse in ruin, and if Britain can emerge from the wreck with her nationhood intact, then whatever temporary damage she has suffered by her ill-starred involvement will have been a small price to pay for independence.
    I suppose it is just a pipe-dream, but if we must, in the mysterious future, belong to any bloc, for God’s sake let it be the North American one. However the ethnic mix of the United States may have changed, they are our people still, in language and culture and ideals. Nothing but good could come of a reunion of the English-speaking peoples—not only Britain and America but the old Empire and Commonwealth countries, our kinsfolk, who stood by us when Europe crumpled, and who, we may hope, would be magnanimous enough to forgive and forget our betrayal of them in 1972.
    This may seem at odds with my earlier strictures on US policy in Afghanistan, but it’s not. The present crisis is a passing thing, and the special relationship with America, while it has undoubtedly received a tremendous shot in the arm from Blair’s “shoulder to shoulder” stance, would not have suffered lasting damage if we had given America every support short of fighting. After all, our contribution is a drop in the bucket,