first thoughts: thatcherism for ever?
WORKERS, MAR 2005 ISSUE
The government has decided that the referendum question must be, "Should the United Kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the European Union?" But this is seriously misleading. It is not a question of "approving" a treaty — to answer Yes to this question would be to pledge allegiance to what would be our new constitution — the trap would shut.
To answer Yes would be to endorse our becoming a province of a new EU state. The constitution rules that all member states must change their constitutions so as to transfer all their sovereignty to the new state. To answer Yes would be to end Britain's sovereignty and independence.
The constitution gives a new EU state its own independence, rather than depending on treaties agreed between sovereign member states. Valery Giscard-d'Estaing, its architect, has said, "Our constitution cannot be reduced to a mere treaty for co-operation between governments. Anyone who has not yet grasped this fact deserves to wear the dunce's cap."
It gives the EU for the first time a legal personality and an independent corporate existence. The EU constitution lays down the form of this new state: undemocratic and corporatist. It also lays down the policies that we would have to follow — Thatcherism, monetarism. Vote for it, and corporatism and Thatcherism would become constitutional obligations.