They’ve let the EU walk all over us (From The Northern Echo)

They’ve let the EU walk all over us

11:11am Tuesday 13th July 2010 in

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WHAT is the point of the coalition Government? Indeed, what is the point of any British government when, in vital matters of public life, we are not in control of our own affairs?

Abu Hamza is serving seven years in jail in this country for soliciting murder and racial hatred. The American authorities recently alleged he plotted to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and applied for his extradition so he could face charges in the US. We agreed to their request, but the European Court of Human Rights last week halted extradition proceedings in a preliminary judgement, which gives the Government until September 2 to make further submissions.

If this preliminary ruling turns out to be a final judgement, our national sovereignty will have been undermined.

The European judges say Hamza’s human rights may be infringed by the treatment he is likely to receive in America if convicted.

They say nothing about our – or the Americans’ – right not to be murdered. This early ruling is outrageous, but our Government will be craven to accept a similar final ruling.

We have an extradition treaty with the US.

It is our right, as a sovereign national state, to sign such treaties as we believe to be in our interest. Hamza is a dangerous man and should be made to face whatever charges are laid against him both by us and by our ally.

What this case shows is that we are no longer able to exercise our sovereign authority as a nation. We are ruled by European courts and whatever they choose to legislate.

We are no more than a puppet regime.

People who protest about this are dismissed as scaremongers, as the awkward squad.

In John Major’s days he called anti-European rebels in his Cabinet “bastards”. And that is the name for patriots in our country now where they are regarded as illegitimate.

Why did we ever sign up for this subservience to the totalitarian EU state? Supporters in all parties say it is all for our own good, that we should aim for “ever closer political union” – that’s what the various treaties say explicitly – “with our European partners”.

But what sort of partners are they who prevent us from acting in our own interests – who can even prevent us from acting at all?

They are not our partners at all, but masters.

Further, our governments have repeatedly lied to us. We were denied a promised referendum on the latest EU treaty. We have seen our national independence eroded consistently since joining the EU. Europe dictates our agricultural and fishing policies. More of our economic policy, including the contents of budgets, taxation and business regulation, is decided by EU bureaucrats. Scandalously, the same goes for immigration policy.

Now we find that national security – our right to protect our citizens from terrorism and to enter into agreements with our allies – has been removed from our authority.

Successive governments have surrendered our national sovereignty to the EU. Why, when we rejoiced at the Soviet Union’s collapse 20 years ago, are we building up its replacement on our own doorstep?

What we managed to preserve in the face of Nazi aggressors we now surrender willingly to the largely unelected and undemocratic empire of corrupt officialdom in the EU.

The Cameron-Clegg pantomime horse is devoted to the EU and will do nothing to restore national sovereignty. I know who the “bastards” are. It’s not the British patriots.

■ Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael’s, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.