Having been here, on and off, since 1979, I want to contribute a few words about this vital conference.Leaders in the British Parliament at Westminster have never told the truth to the British people. Leaders in the House of Commons from Thatcher onwards have failed to explain ‘Europe’ to the people in the UK. The Brexit MEPs who have spoken here in this debate but have all left the chamber, unwilling to listen to other opinions, are a symptom of that ignorance.Thirty years ago I wrote and published a pamphlet about The Democratic Deficit. That Deficit remains.I am afraid that the UK will not return to the Union until leaders in the Commons tell the truth: that they don’t control an empire and that they are just another parliament which is greatly in need of profound reforms. I was asked last autumn: ‘How is it possible for an unelected British Prime Minister to ask the unelected Head of State to suspend a parliament only half of which is elected?’I fear that not until the British people are taken down to an uneconomic nadir and they learn the truth might we return to the European Union.
2016/11/22