So amazed by what he read about the EU whilst holidaying here, Australian Ted Waters wrote a short summary of what he’d learned about the Union.

Neil Mackereth had given him a copy of Amazon’s No 1 bestseller ‘Why Vote Leave’, by Daniel Hannon and which he’d highly recommended to me too. (For details click/tap book image.)  Neil’s own ‘Stay or Leave?’ summary on the Referendum and my recommending his book on Bible prophecy have appeared on this blog, and I’m grateful to those friends for permission to publish their remarks.

Neil had previously emailed me, “I’ve just finished reading a short and brilliant new eurosceptic book by Daniel Hannan MEP (Tory) entitled Why Vote Leave. It is a  very powerful, eloquent, and readable assessment and gives all the secular ammo and arguments in very digestible and shareable form. As you will see from the accompanying reviews, it has attracted enthusiastic praise from all parts of the conventional political spectrum – including from Lord Owen, ex-Labour Foreign Secretary and former supporter of the European project.”

Daniel is a columnist and Member of the European Parliament who wants us to vote so that he loses his job!  He came to the public’s attention in 2009 when he gave PM Gordon Brown a public lambasting after his speech in that parliament and which went viral on YouTube!

So Neil writes me that Ted, ‘…was so amazed by (the book) that he decided to research some of the key aspects (for accuracy) and then, to my surprise, to write a summary. To quote from his (Ted’s) email to me (Neil),

“He (Daniel) has a bias in that he believes, in my view correctly, that Britain should leave; but after reading his evidence based on facts, many of which I have verified from base references, it is clear that the decision taken later this month will set the scene for Britain to either become a state within a United States of Europe or remain independent.

“This is a decision that will affect the future of your children and grandchildren . The arguments supporting remaining an independent country I find compelling. In addition I can not imagine, however, any circumstance where Australians would vote in support of a proposal subjugating our parliament to the decisions of an unelected Commission supported by a judicially active Supreme Court located in another country.”

Note: emphases added by RB

Extracts from ‘Why Vote Leave’ by Daniel Hannon

Sovereignty

Europe is about supra-national coercion. Brussels has banned traditional light bulbs, high powered vacuum cleaners and other electrical appliances, has introduced the requirement to open a bank account with old utility bills, the end of weekly recycling and a ban on minimum alcohol pricing. Decisions taken not by a parliament but by bureaucrats in Brussels.

The question is, who runs Britain? A group of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels or the elected representatives in Britain? Who has primacy? The European treaties gives European law primacy over local laws in each country. This primacy does not only refer to sensible cross border issues: ie. international dialing codes or money transfer regulations but also to all businesses, including those that have no cross-border activity.

What makes the EU treaties unique is that they create a new legal order which member states must accept is superior to its own, and which is directly enforced by the national courts even when the national governments say otherwise. The supremacy of the EU law has never been agreed by the member states but is a doctrine invented by the European Court of Justice.

Even an explicit act of parliament is deemed inferior to EU rules. That is what loss of sovereignty means in practice. Since majority voting was introduced in the European Parliament in the late 1980’s the UK has voted against an EU legislative proposal 70 times and has lost the vote 70 times.

The UK is in a permanent minority because her interests and outlook diverge from the European-mean more than those of any other state

The European Parliament cannot, except in very special circumstances, propose laws. It’s role is to amend legislation put to it by the unelected European Commission.

In 27 of the states of the EU the written constitution is supreme and parliament is subordinate. Britain is the exception. The EU has a written constitution called the treaty of Lisbon. The constitution is interpreted by the European Court of Justice.

An example: When the EU bureaucrats wanted to extend their reach to include social policy and employment law Britain only agreed on the basis it had an opt-out. As soon as agreement was reached, 11 countries started agitating to include Britain even though it had an opt-out agreement. The judicial body decided that the provisions in the 1993 working-time directive was a health and safety policy not a social policy and that it applied to Britain. Therefore, Britain had to comply.

Since that decision it has extended its ruling to include travel to and from work within the 48 hour working week limit.

By remaining in, Britain gives up primacy of UK law over EU law in its own territory, gives up the right to sign bilateral trade agreements with non-EU nations and the right to decide who settles in the UK.

Would UK Businesses Be Better Off?

79% of all UK businesses are internal to the UK but 100% have to abide by Euro regulations. 10% do business with the Europe and 11% is with the rest of the world.

Since 1973 European commerce is controlled by the European Commission which imposed a common external tariff designed to redirect EU member trade from global to European markets. Europe was 30% of world trade in 1980 and is 17% in 2015. Every economic region in the world is larger in 2015 than it was in 2008 except the EU. The EU has had 8 years of economic stagnation. The major causes are European cost bases driven by over regulation, support for inefficient industries and the euro!!

Britain and Greece out of 28 members of the EU sell the majority of their exports outside the EU and in Britain’s case the spread is widening materially. In 2006 54.7% of Britain’s exports went to Europe . In 2015 it was 44.6%. The EU has free-trade agreements with only 2 of Britain’s non EU top 10 export markets. Britain’s trade is in surplus with the non-EU states and growing, whilst it is in deficit within the EU and shrinking. The trade deficit with the EU was £59 billion in 2015.

On leaving Britain would become the EU’s biggest customer worth 289 billion pounds. The remaining EU members would not engage in a trade war as they have more to lose than Great Britain.

The common fisheries policy only applies to the North Sea and not the Mediterranean or the Baltic. It is clearly anti-UK [AND brought the collapse of our fishing industry! RB]

Britain’s economy is Atlantic rather than European. It has no peer on the continent to its services industry.

Britain has no vote or voice at the World Trade Organization. Most international standards are determined by organisations where Britain has no voice. The common position of the EU works against Britain’s interest by protecting less efficient industries on the continent

Who Are The Advocates To Remain?

Any organizations advocating to remain in Europe have been set up by Brussels or are in receipt of substantial funding from the EU. Examples are the Confederation of British Industry received 936,272 euros, UK universities have received 889,889,754 euros from Brussels since 2008.

Evidence That The EU Is A Supra-national State

Is the EU a state? It has a government, a parliament, a Supreme Court, a central bank, a currency, a civil service, a President, a foreign minister, a diplomatic corps, embassies, legal personality, treaty making powers that govern all member states, membership of the United Nations, a flag, a national anthem, a criminal justice system, common citizenship, a passport and a national holiday. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck!   The EU now has jurisdiction over foreign policy, immigration, criminal justice and social policy. It has a standardized driving license and is now aspiring to a common tax and social security system, a pan-European minimum wage, a federal police force, an army and fiscal and economic union.

The European Commission is the EU government. In most areas only the commission can propose new laws. It’s 28 commissioners are unelected!!

Quote from Tony Benn after visiting Brussels:

“My visit confirmed all my suspicions that this (joining the EU) would be the decapitation of British democracy without any countervailing advantage. There is no real benefit for Britain”.

In 2015, the Brussels bureaucracy over-ruled the elected Leftist government in Greece which had clear public support and prevented the Prime Minister from implementing the manifesto on which it had been elected.

Philosophical Differences

Most Continental leaders want a political union.

The UK is in a permanent minority because her interests and outlook diverge from the European mean more than those of any other state.

Britain is isolated within the EU because it differs politically and economically. Since majority voting was introduced in the European Parliament in the late 1980’s the UK has voted against an EU legislative proposal 70 times and has lost the vote 70 times

Britain has a legal system based on common law. Europe’s is based on civil law.

Common law assumes residual freedoms, that which is not explicitly precluded is implicitly allowed. Britain’s legal system is organic rather than prescriptive. Britain is the only member of the EU without a constitution which gives primacy to the UK Parliament not the Judiciary.

In the view of euro bureaucrats, “unregulated” means ” illegal”. The EU generated 52,183 legal acts between 2000 and 2013. The commission itself assesses that the EU increases GDP by 120 billion euros. In 2004 the Internal markets commissioner’s department assessed the cost of regulation at 600 billion euros

Budget Implications

In 41 of 42 years of membership Britain has paid more into the European budget than it has received in return. The exception was 1974 when Britain voted on withdrawal. For most of those years there have only been two net contributors, Britain and Germany.

UK gross contribution to the EU is £19.6 billion gross. This is equivalent to the combined revenue of vehicle excise tax (£5.9), capital gains tax (£5.4), air passenger duty (£3.2), inheritance tax (£3.9), and petrol tax (£1.2).  Food costs would go down by eliminating the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Europe has some of the highest food prices in the world. CAP consumes 40% of the EU annual budget. £4.6 billion of the UK gross contribution goes to CAP costs. In return UK farmers receive £2.9 billion in subsidies.

Energy cost would go down.  As a result of EU directives regarding renewable energy targets and direct legislation the UK pays 20% more than an equivalent firm in China, 65% more than a firm in India and 100% more than a firm in the US. This has contributed materially to the demise of the UK steel industry.

Conclusions

The referendum is about the EU that has taken shape, not some idealized version that we might have preferred.The major issues are about democracy, sovereignty, the EU’s declining share of the world economy, border controls and UK budget contribution to the EU.

A vote to leave will result in a trade only deal, similar to that of Norway,Iceland and Switzerland. A vote to stay will be a vote to be part of a continuing process of political, fiscal and military integration

I believe that Brexit would mean a more prosperous, more democratic and more free Britain.

POSTSCRIPT BY RB:

Having read and digested this summation of Daniel Hannon’s thoroughly informed argument, now read about post-Referendum machinations exposed in yesterday’s Daily Mail: It’s not just the plot to let in 1.5 million Turks! Daniel Hannon outlines TEN bombshells the EU’s keeping secret until after you’ve voted.

‘Embarrassing leaks have revealed that British Government officials colluded in Brussels to keep contentious issues about plans for making the EU into more of a superstate off the political agenda until after next week’s referendum…

1. Banning hair dryers
2. A bigger budget
3. Open borders
4. More bail-outs
5. Deeper immigration
6. Human rights
7. Arts import licences
8. Wrecking our ports
9. Quotas for online TV
10. A European army’ (in addition to NATO!)

Don’t say we haven’t been warned! We already know the EEC/EU’s horrific track record – why ever want shed-loads more ad infinitum?? Enough is more than enough – enough said?