Brexit – democracy rules UK?

Liamy MacNally

IF the ‘Remain’ side won in Britain it would be hailed as a resounding victory. The ‘I told you so’ brigade would be in overdrive and the Eurosmiles would put the proverbial grinning Cheshire cat to shame. Alas, that didn’t happen! Democracy, rather than Eurocracy, prevailed. The build-up and lead-in of threats, lies and scare mongering faded into oblivion under the flag of principles.
‘We want our country back,’ was the scream of 17,410,742 British people. You might ask, ‘Back from whom?’ It is a simple answer – the EU. The same sentiment was echoed by Mayo TD Dara Calleary last week when he said the European institutions “walked away” from Ireland during the economic crisis.
This ‘conversation’ is necessary. The EU needs serious and immediate reform if it is not to disintegrate. Already it is creating the divisions it purports to prevent. We know it in Ireland. We have been betrayed by the EU – cue bailout, bondholders (German, French and British), Anglo Irish Bank, and co.   
Ireland was threatened with ‘a bomb going off in Dublin’ if bondholders were not repaid from national funds. These instructions came from an unelected European Commission and unelected European Central Bank President.
The Irish government subsequently imposed taxes (from water to property) and used the money to ‘pay the bank debt’ which has now become a sovereign debt for this and future generations. Thank you Europe (and your Irish minions) for your version of democracy!
The current European Commission President is one Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, during whose term of office favourable tax deals were struck with trans-national corporations, as revealed last year by LuxLeaks. According to the Financial Times: “More than 300 companies, from Ikea to Pepsi, were able to lower their tax bills, to as little as one percent in some cases, by funneling money through Luxembourg.”

Unelected
Do the Europhiles still not get it? People are fed up and tired of being stripped and kneeled and whipped by unelected people. After Brexit the first EU meeting was among the six founding nations. The next day Germany, France and Italy met. It was only at the third meeting that all member states met. Even when the European Parliament held an extraordinary meeting on Brexit, Irish MEPs were not allowed to speak. Need we say more?
In a democracy power rests with the people. In the EU power rests with an unelected Commission with legislative and executive power. Basically, the Commission says who, what, where, when and why. And it is not accountable to individual member states. This removes it from the electorate. This is not democracy in action. It is closer to fascism. The real question is – Who does the EU serve? If it does not serve you then it is not doing what it says (or once said) on the tin. Our experience shows us that it serves bankers and their political allies.
Many people will not challenge the EU or dare to question its modus operandi. For some they just couldn’t be bothered. For others, they are in well-paid jobs or receive substantial pensions so they can ‘absorb’ all the recent tax hikes. It brings to mind – the purpose of the Gospel is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, which is more difficult because they are paid the most.
Those with plenty tend not to challenge a system that is enabling their wellbeing, even when the burden is falling on those who have little. Why did we not protest the bondholder bailout, the acceptance of the bank debt as sovereign debt and the ongoing Promissory Notes fiasco?
The EU is not interested in national states but prefers a federal Europe where the state is subsumed into the ‘whole.’ That thinking abounds – from farming to fishing, where the ‘big boy’ is preferred to the ‘small guy.’ The ‘establishment’ can never be greater than democracy. The UK has delivered on democracy. The cost is great. Democracy means standing up for principles, lest we forget. In its wake, many are asking the wrong question…
European? Union? The  EU is neither.