The Constitutional & Political Consequences for Britain if She Joins the Euro
The
Constitutional Consequences
The
Political Consequences
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONSEQUENCES
The Treaty on European Union
that created European Monetary Union and the euro lays down massive and
irreversible transfers of power from democratically elected national governments
to unelected and unaccountable institutions like the European Commission and the
European Central Bank. Any country
that joins EMU and adopts the euro has completely severed the link between the
electorate and any kind of democratic power over of the most fundamental thing
that affects their daily lives. As
far as the European Central Bank is concerned the removal of all democratic
linkage between the citizen and the relevant decision making bodies is
deliberate and absolute. Article 7
of the statues of the ECB states: "neither
the ECB, nor a national bank, nor any member of their decision making bodies
shall take or seek instructions from Community institutions or bodies, from any
government of a member state or from any other body".
Let us imagine for a moment that Britain had joined the euro,
and that at some time in the future an adverse economic situation arises with spiraling
inflation, rising unemployment, and perhaps even civil disorder
imminent. A British government
would have no control over the levers of economic power, and if it tried to make
any representation to the Board of the European Central Bank to take measure on
behalf of the British people it would be told that it would be illegal to
even transmit its petition to the ECB. The
constitutional consequence of Britain deciding to join the euro would be that
the British people accepted that their democratic system of government was
giving up, permanently and irrevocably, power over one of the most vital areas
of national life: and, that they were effectively surrendering democratic rule
for a form of dictatorship. It
is the case already that EU laws are made by decree, and that EU law takes
precedence over English & Scottish law. All the EU treaties (Rome, Single
European Market, Masstricht, Amsterdam and Nice) were in effect a series of
'enabling acts' whereby democratic government was replaced by
undemocratic government: this process is now almost complete. If
Britain joins the euro then she will have ceased to be, once and for all, a
self-governing independent nation and she will have accepted the subservient
status of a region of the European Union.
THE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES
If Britain decides to join the
euro then at some point in the future the electorate may well ask: is it really
is still worthwhile turning out on a wet Thursday to cast a vote at all?
If politicians give up the right to exercise power over the currency and
the economy then what are they good for?
Local Authority election turnouts in Britain are generally low, in the
region of 20%-30%. People
are apathetic about electing officials who they see as not having very much real
power. Turnouts in the European
parliamentary elections are even lower, a record low of around 25% being
achieved in the 1999 election: not surprisingly since most people despise MEPs
who are seen as clambering abroad a useless gravy train in order to disappear on
five-year-long expense account lunches. General
elections still achieve a high turnout, in the 70% plus range because
people still see Parliament as being relevant to their lives.
They think that their vote still counts and that they still have power to
change the way in which they are governed.
However people are becoming
more and more aware that the essential issues that effect their lives are
increasingly moving out of the control of parliament and government and into the
hands of the European Union. The
whole issue of Europe, more then any other, has caused a general increase in the
mood of public cynicism towards politics.
If the British people decide to join the euro in a referendum then they
have to do so with their eyes wide open. They
will soon find that they have no democratic influence or control of the most
important economic areas of national life.
What then will be the point of voting
for politicians who have no real or effective power? There won't even be any
point in demonstrating on the streets - the disaffected will have to travel to
Brussels or Frankfurt to make their point.