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		Lies, damned lies and the EU Constitution Lincolnshire Echo - July 23 2004 Tony Blair says that the debate on the EU Constitution should be between myth and reality. And you know, he's right. Let's look at the reality. The reality is, we were taken into the Common Market (as we used to call it) in 1973 on a wholly false prospectus. Ted Heath told us that there was "no question of any sacrifice of essential national sovereignty". Harold Wilson, in the 1975 referendum, told us that the threat of a common currency, which would cost British jobs (his words, not mine), "had been removed". Now we see it in place in twelve countries. The reality is, that there has been a steady, stealthy transfer of power from Westminster to Brussels over thirty years. Today more than half of the new laws that affect us are made in Brussels, not in Britain, and the British parliament has effectively no say over these laws. The reality is, that the EU is damaging our prosperity, and threatening British jobs, with a mountain of red tape. It is undermining democracy, by passing powers to unelected and unaccountable officials. The reality is, that the euro currency is a massive failure. More and more economists are recognising that it is delivering sub-optimal monetary policy, damaging growth and employment in the euro-zone. Some are asking how long it can last. So what about the myths? Tony Blair has offered us plenty. "The Constitution confirms that the EU is an association of independent states". The Constitution creates a single legal entity, deriving authority from the Constitution itself. Its laws take precedence over the laws of member-states. It has a President and a Foreign Minister. If that's not a federal state, what on earth is it? "The Constitution clearly sets out what the EU can do, and what member-states can do". Like all the best myths, this one contains a half-truth. It's just that the EU has precedence in virtually all policy areas, and the member-states in virtually none. And there are provisions enabling the EU to mop up any remaining national powers. As they say in Brussels, "The ring-fences are designed to be eroded over time". "The Constitution gives more say to national governments". Here, Blair is referring to a complicated procedure that allows a third of member-state governments to query any EU initiative. But there is absolutely no requirement for the EU Commission to take a scrap of notice. This is a dead letter, and it is deceitful of Blair to pretend otherwise. "The Constitution doesn't affect our foreign policy or armed forces". The Constitution requires us to "actively and unreservedly support the Union's common foreign and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity". Does Blair have trouble reading? Or has he not bothered? "If we vote NO in the referendum, we'll have to leave the EU". This claim is plain wrong, both legally and politically. On the contrary, if we (or any other member) fail to ratify, the Constitution is dead in the water, and we are free to negotiate a better deal. "The Charter of Fundamental Rights is good for Britain". What this Charter does is to pass decision-making over a huge swathe of policy, out of the hands of elected institutions, to unelected and unaccountable judges. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is notoriously activist and federalist, and will use the Charter to drive EU integration further and faster. In the process, they will impose the failing EU social model, and bomb our industrial relations back into the seventies. The most fundamental right of all is our right as a free nation to govern ourselves through our own democratic institutions. That is the right that this EU Constitution will take away from us, unless we reject it decisively.