What will it take?

There are many subjects I need to blog about but I think I shall turn my attention first to that new organization, Direct Democracy, whose appearance I welcomed with just one cheer. Now I think that I was too generous.

Direct Democracy, run by Dominique Lazanski but set up by those ubiquitous token eurosceptics of the Conservative Party, Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP, has decided to take on the "European issue", presumably shifting that burden away from the Taxpayers' Alliance. Now neither I nor the Boss at EUReferendum have any problems with people becoming involved with the subject of the EU but we do prefer it if individuals and organizations that go down that route actually find out a few basic facts about the subject. We are always ready to supply those facts but, for some reason, we are never asked by such entities as the Taxpayers' Alliance or, now, Direct Democracy.

Furthermore, while we do not need to quoted all the time, we would like it acknowledged that we (and many others, as I pointed out when I wrote about the Taxpayers' Alliance and the common fisheries policy and also here and here) have been "banging on" about the subject for some time.

Let us have a look at what Direct Democracy has produced. Well, well, a posting entitled Who Will Protect UK Sovereignty? Protect? Protect? What is there to protect? How can you protect something that does not exist any more? After all, the overwhelming majority of all legislation in this country comes from the EU (let's not quibble about exact percentages) and Parliament has no right to set it aside even if it happens to be that small part that is actually debated. One tax (VAT) is not fully controlled by the British government. What other definition of sovereignty does Direct Democracy want apart from legislation and taxation?

It then gets worse. The first paragraph states:

The European Council is set to meet this coming Thursday and Friday. This meeting was meant to be an IGC but it has since been watered down due to a variety of reasons that we do not officially know yet. An IGC meeting would potentially trigger an EU referendum in the UK because by calling the meeting an IGC it would be forced to legally make amendment proposals to the current treaty. And that would cause great chaos at the moment. But this European Council meeting might just cause chaos on its own.

While there are helpful links in the text, there is a clear lack of knowledge or understanding. The European Council always meets around this time of the year as one presidency is coming to an end and another one will be starting on July 1.

There was never the slightest chance of an IGC at this point. There are various rules as to how an Inter-Governmental Conference is assembled and none of them had been activated. Furthermore, it takes many months for an IGC to take place; it is not simply called when a routine European Council is about to meet with a week or so to spare.

Then we get the obligatory references to Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell and finally the following interesting comment:

Someone recently commented that Direct Democracy was banging on an on about Europe and it was a bit tiresome. If we don't talk about this who will? At least Dan Hannan will, no doubt, continue to write about it. And Douglas Carswell too. But if we all want the UK to grow strong and climb out of the current financial crisis, then groups like Direct Democracy need to make sure that the Coalition Government doesn't u-turn on their promise to keep the UK sovereign. Remember, they promised, "No further transfer of sovereignty over next parliament..." to the European Union.

Goodness me! So if it were not for Direct Democracy, clearly a front organization for the Conservative Party or a couple of Conservative politicians nobody would ever talk about "Europe". Is that so? Well, well, you could have knocked me down with a feather. (I shall not quote what the Boss said when I read the paragraph out to him. This is a family-friendly blog.)

Just one final point: Direct Democracy seems unhappy with the fact that the Coalition government is not living up to the eurosceptic propaganda of the election campaign. Dear me. Remind me who was the politician-cum-journalist-cum-clogger who told us over and over again that if you really wanted results over the European issue you should vote Conservative because Cameron and Hague will deliver? Step forward Daniel Hannan MEP.