THE 40TH BIRTHDAY OF BRITAIN'S WORST DECISION OF ALL TIME

EXACTLY 40 years ago this week the British political class perpetrated an act of epic treachery against our country.

It was in January 1973 that Britain, under the leadership of Edward Heath, officially joined the Common Market or European Economic Community, the entity that would grow into the all powerful European Union.

The decision to surrender to the suffocating embrace of Brussels proved a disaster. Our independence has been weakened, our economy shackled and our democracy undermined. As Britain slides towards the status of a province within a bureaucratic empire, disillusion with the European project is mounting.

According to the latest opinion polls a majority of British voters now want to withdraw from the EU. Recognising the force of public feeling, even the most dogmatic pro-Europeans have not dared to celebrate this 40th anniversary.

Perhaps the most sickening aspect of Heath's betrayal was his cynical dishonesty. A cold, aloof man who mixed pomposity with an authoritarian streak, he held the public in such contempt that he was willing to tell lies over our future in Europe.

So in a televised broadcast in January 1973 to mark Britain's new membership of the EEC, he declared: "There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified."
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BUT Heath knew that this was totally untrue. As Britain's most committed champion of the European cause he was only too aware that the EEC was not, as he pretended, a means of promoting free trade but actually a vehicle for the creation of a federal superstate.

Indeed, when in 1970 he first made the application to join the Common Market, the Foreign Office briefed him that Brussels wanted to see a "progressive development towards a political union" where "all the basic instruments of national economic management would ultimately be handed over to the central federal authorities". None of this was news to Heath.

As the minister for Europe in an earlier Tory government in 1960 he had been privately told by the European Commission that any new entrant to the Common Market must "accept the principle that the EEC is intended to evolve into something much deeper, some form of federal state".

That is precisely what has happened during the last 40 years, as Heath knew it would. The drive towards integration has been relentless, with the EU acquiring all the trappings of nationhood, including its own flag, anthem, currency, parliament, president, executive, courts and even diplomatic service.

Meanwhile, contrary to Heath's fraudulent pledges, Britain's independence has been systematically eroded. Around 80 per cent of our laws are dictated by Brussels and British firms are swamped by EU bureaucracy.

Thanks to the EU we no longer control our borders, with the result that our population and welfare bills are soaring. This will get worse at the end of next year when new EU rules mean 29 million Bulgarians and Romanians get full rights to settle and claim benefits here.

The loss of our sovereignty has been accompanied by accelerating economic decline. European integration was hailed by its advocates as a means of bringing new prosperity to the Continent, turning Europe into a global superpower that could challenge the US and the Far East.

But just the opposite has happened. Dragged down by bureaucracy and debt, the eurozone has become a byword for stagnation. The dole queues in Greece are graphic symbols of the EU's spectacular failure.

Yet the EU's leaders regard the economic meltdown as an opportunity to demand even more integration. Nothing, not even bankruptcy and mass unemployment, is allowed to divert Europe from the path to unity. In the twisted mind-set of Brussels the crisis has been caused by too little central control rather than too much.

THIS stance was clearly demonstrated in September by the President of the European Commission Jos© Manuel Barroso, a former Maoist from Portugal, who declared that Europe "needs to develop a fully-equipped community economic governance" because "we cannot continue trying to solve European problems with national solutions".

The reality of the drive towards European unification makes a mockery of the Tory Party's pretence that we can remain in the EU yet bring back powers from Brussels. The EU will never tolerate such freedom from its member states. Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the EU Council of Ministers, said only last week that Britain "cannot cherry pick" its powers to "look after its own interests".

Those words show there is no half-way house with Europe. We either accept a federal future or we regain our independence.

It was Jacques Delors, the French socialist and leading architect of today's EU, who recently declared that "if Britain cannot support the trend towards more integration in Europe", we should leave and reach a "free trade agreement" with Brussels. Delors was right. We would be far better off in charge of our own destiny.

The idea that we could not survive on our own is scaremongering, the kind of nonsense pro-EU types spouted when demanding we join the euro.

We were once a great, enterprising nation and we can be again if we reverse that fateful decision made in 1973.

Let's hope this or a subsequent government has the guts to hold a "Yes or No" referendum in the UK

I think it highly unlikely that will ever happen too many self interests on both sides of the house.

If we left, we would be isolated, have no trade agreements, prices would soar and thousands if not millions would lose their jobs, our minimum wage is as a result of EU legislation, the UK would have little or no influence in world affairs, and you'd have to queue and pay for a visa to visit every EU member country to go on holiday!

European citizens have the freedom to live, work, study, and travel in any other EU country. Hundreds of thousands of Brits work in the other EU countries - 3.5 million British jobs are dependent on Britain's membership of the EU. All that will be lost if we leave.

Do you think that little Britain on its own could negotiate such favourable trading deals with the USA as it can being a member of the European Union? I don’t think so. To win huge trading deals with the USA means you have to be as big, or bigger, than the US. The EU is the planet’s largest economy. We’re just a tiny island

Anyone who thinks we should pull out is living in cloud cuckoo land.

TaniaP wrote:If we left, we would be isolated, have no trade agreements, prices would soar and thousands if not millions would lose their jobs, our minimum wage is as a result of EU legislation, the UK would have little or no influence in world affairs, and you'd have to queue and pay for a visa to visit every EU member country to go on holiday!

European citizens have the freedom to live, work, study, and travel in any other EU country. Hundreds of thousands of Brits work in the other EU countries - 3.5 million British jobs are dependent on Britain's membership of the EU. All that will be lost if we leave.

Do you think that little Britain on its own could negotiate such favourable trading deals with the USA as it can being a member of the European Union? I don’t think so. To win huge trading deals with the USA means you have to be as big, or bigger, than the US. The EU is the planet’s largest economy. We’re just a tiny island

Anyone who thinks we should pull out is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Or on the Cockney Boys Forum . Happy New Year Darling xxx

Same to you Tone xxxxx

TaniaP wrote:If we left, we would be isolated, have no trade agreements, prices would soar and thousands if not millions would lose their jobs, our minimum wage is as a result of EU legislation, the UK would have little or no influence in world affairs, and you'd have to queue and pay for a visa to visit every EU member country to go on holiday!

European citizens have the freedom to live, work, study, and travel in any other EU country. Hundreds of thousands of Brits work in the other EU countries - 3.5 million British jobs are dependent on Britain's membership of the EU. All that will be lost if we leave.

Do you think that little Britain on its own could negotiate such favourable trading deals with the USA as it can being a member of the European Union? I don’t think so. To win huge trading deals with the USA means you have to be as big, or bigger, than the US. The EU is the planet’s largest economy. We’re just a tiny island

Anyone who thinks we should pull out is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Yeah we really failed as a nation prior to 1973 didn't we?!!!

At the minute I don't really have a penchant for any political party...None of them have particularly strong leaders and all of them have slimy people in the higher positions! I have to agree with Tania though........The perks of being in the EU completley outweigh the negatives and it's only people who whinge and complain about the immigration problem that actually want out......Give the Sun readers a referendum and half of them won't even know how to say the word let alone try to find a couple of arguments for and against to help them with their decision!

I agree that the immigration problem is something that needs addressing, however I think it can be done without the need to pull out of the EU. There is no way on earth we could get the kind of deals with the states and China without being part of the EU and can you imagine how many farmers would certainly go under without the Common Agricultural Policy...Tescos, Sainsburys and Asda would have a field day and would drive farmers out of business, as it is the dairy farming situation is pretty bleak, soon enough we will have to import our milk anyway!!!!

I for one would rather put up with a few hundred thousand eastern Europeans taking the jobs that nobody wants and be able to go anywhere in the EU without the need for the expense and hassle of having to get a VISA to go through the Channel tunnel!!!!

We stayed out of the Euro, yet that wasn't good enough for anyone......We still have control over our interest rates, yet that isn't good enough for anyone. If we are going to start to take control of our country then we need to start with the people taking the piss out of the benefits system......More BRITISH people commit benefit fraud than immigrants, either take the benefits away and force them to work the shit jobs, get people off job seekers allowance and get them into the call centres......Also put a temporary block on immigration for maybe a year.........We have no reason after destroying virtually every country we colonised to be so stuck up about keeping England full of English people, all of the successful countries and economies in the world have opened up to immigration.....Even Australia the hardest place to emigrate to is letting more people in these days and they HATE non Aussies!!!!

Maybe I'm blowing smoke up the wrong tree and surely some of you will think I'm talking drivel but I'm frankly getting a tiny bit tired of people telling us to leave the EU based solely on the statistic of immigration! Don't like it? Well the glory of the EU is that you can at least bugger off to another country and carry on with your sun reading life without let or hindrance!

Rant over

Don't usually get involved with political type thingies on here, have in the past voted, Tory, Labour (when they had real socialists, not that cnut blair) monster raving loony party, green, and the valley party. The only one that actually achieved what it set out to do was the valley party! Charlton are back there and have a great little ground now.

I voted to go into the EU, my reasoning all those years ago? We are a small country with a big ego, yes we used to rule 1/5 or 1/4 of the world, I actually remember the globes and maps at school being mostly pink, and not because they were gay! However I could see as an 18 year old that we were finished on the world stage unless we were part of something bigger than the Commonwealth games! We need the EU more than they need us, immigration is a big issue for me, and needs to be addressed but I agree with Stoobs, start at home sorting out our welfare system, make it harder for people to get easy money, don't allow anyone to sponge off the state, use hospitals without paying into the system, and the freelaoders from abroad will go. asgain as Stoobs says there are more British abusing the system than eastern Europeans. We have loads up here, and they are all working at shit jobs, some doing two shit jobs, jobs Britsih people wont do, so don't just run down the foreigners on this one, we need to look at ourselves first, sort our own issues out. Without the EU we are nothing on the world stage other than the yanks poodle when they want someone to help them start unwinnable wars (back to that criminal Blair again ). We need to stop seeing the world through imperial pink glasses, and see it for what it is.

Sorry got a head cold thought this might help ease it

Might as well have my penn'oth. My small one-man business is selling , maintaining and repairing specialised machinery from Italy. There is no-UK built machinery that does the same job, somebody tried to make one here a few years ago and it cost twice as much as importing. If we left the EU my job would become so difficult in terms of form-filling and bureaucracy I would just give up, I think - either that or I would have to massively increase the prices so that I could employ a secretary to do it all, which would probably kill the business. Now multiply that situation by a few hundred thousand cases. If you speak to anyone involved in business that trades at all with Europe, importing or exporting, they will tell you that withdrawal from the EU would be a financial disaster. And our trade with Europe is the major part of our ecomomy, which is pretty damn fragile already without trying to make it do a complete U-turn.
By all means press for greater autonomy for individual countries. By all means press to limit the power and the budget of the Brussels mob.By all means press to root out waste and corruption in the EU budget. And if you choose to carry on believing that "wogs begin at Calais", well, I suppose you're entitled to your opinion. But do try to recognise when newspapers and would-be politicians (with their own agendas) are looking to exploit your irritation with the bits that don't work, and try at least to listen to people who will tell you that a great deal of it does work, and works in our favour.Let's get a sense of proportion, if you've got an irritating verruca on your toe you don't cut your leg off, do you?
There is a certain up-and-coming one-issue political party whose symbol should be, IMHO, a wet baby being thrown out of a bath.

TaniaP wrote:If we left, we would be isolated, have no trade agreements, prices would soar and thousands if not millions would lose their jobs, our minimum wage is as a result of EU legislation, the UK would have little or no influence in world affairs, and you'd have to queue and pay for a visa to visit every EU member country to go on holiday!

European citizens have the freedom to live, work, study, and travel in any other EU country. Hundreds of thousands of Brits work in the other EU countries - 3.5 million British jobs are dependent on Britain's membership of the EU. All that will be lost if we leave.

Do you think that little Britain on its own could negotiate such favourable trading deals with the USA as it can being a member of the European Union? I don’t think so. To win huge trading deals with the USA means you have to be as big, or bigger, than the US. The EU is the planet’s largest economy. We’re just a tiny island

Anyone who thinks we should pull out is living in cloud cuckoo land.

^^this^^ - nothing else need be said.

I guess I have a vested interest in the EC, as a Brit living in another EC country & with 2 kids holding Finnish passports, although born in the UK.

I'll just add that I tend to follow Harry Enfield's wise words when he likened the EC to a moving train. 'It's better to be on the train pissing out of the window than to be outside trying to piss in'

Suzanne Claret wrote:

TaniaP wrote:If we left, we would be isolated, have no trade agreements, prices would soar and thousands if not millions would lose their jobs, our minimum wage is as a result of EU legislation, the UK would have little or no influence in world affairs, and you'd have to queue and pay for a visa to visit every EU member country to go on holiday!

European citizens have the freedom to live, work, study, and travel in any other EU country. Hundreds of thousands of Brits work in the other EU countries - 3.5 million British jobs are dependent on Britain's membership of the EU. All that will be lost if we leave.

Do you think that little Britain on its own could negotiate such favourable trading deals with the USA as it can being a member of the European Union? I don’t think so. To win huge trading deals with the USA means you have to be as big, or bigger, than the US. The EU is the planet’s largest economy. We’re just a tiny island

Anyone who thinks we should pull out is living in cloud cuckoo land.

^^this^^ - nothing else need be said.

Oh go on , I,m sure you want to

I,l no politician and I have,nt really been over interested in politics , I did vote for the Iron Lady , I thought why not give a female a crack seeing as the blokes had been fucking it up for years . I thought the sale of council houses to the occupants was good , let the working class have a chance of owning something after all the shit our country went through in the war , if it was right or wrong I dont know but my mum got to buy her house and she deserved it . This government is shafting the British people ( Another 50 Shades of Grey moment ) and from what I see from across the North sea , the British are bending over and screaming " more " . Ive been away from England for 24 yrs and every time I go back I see even more changes , for the worse , I,m afraid , I would not feel safe walking about at night even in Dagenham where I grew up . I would love to move back home , I miss my home but if it happened it would have to be some where descent and not too far from UP . Now lets talk about the millions moving to Britain for some free bees , immigrants . Dont anyone see that this is a huge problem in England , where does all this money come from ( Some one tell me ) to house them , plash the welfare cash , wanna have our tits enlarged , dont worry come on over we will do it for free , thn theres the crime rate going up and I know we have our own British scum , do we need any more ?
Someone said " shut the gates for a couple or years , tighten up the NHSS, welfare and those that are working make sure they pay the tax in England and not use it to but a shit hot house in Warsaw and see how many leave , gotta be worth a try , innit . I say what I think is right and I dont think I,m too far from the truth . Innit

I didn't begrudge anyone buying their council home then. The only flaw with it, was that the new ones promised to replace them never materialised. My kids, born and bred in Romford (apart from a few years in Cornwall) have no chance of renting from the borough now. The list is so long it takes years to get to the top, probably as long as it would take them to save the 40 grand deposit they need to buy a house in this area. Heaven knows how they can save that amount when practically all of their wages are being paid to a private landlord, who own and are renting out, yes you've guessed it, ex council property!

They are changing the rules in April this year for people on the list. One change is that you have to have lived in the borough for the last two years. TWO YEARS!!! It should be much longer than that, and because it has been less in the past however many years, it just shows why there is such a shortage now.

They've knocked down three hospitals in our area and built just one. The land occupied by the other two have had, or are having flats built on them as I type. More people for just one hospital. More council tax for the borough, but still no new council properties.

I honestly don't begrudge your Mum Geeze, or others like her. She'd more than likely paid in rent what the place was worth at the time. It's wrong now though, and should be monitored more closely.