Welcome to the website of the U.K. Independence Party, Bromsgrove Constituency Association.

This page is intended to provide information and facts (from quoted sources) regarding our relationship with the European Union.

We believe that our entire political relationship with Europe is based on deceit and betrayal, which is why it is always avoided by the mainstream political parties. They never discuss issues affecting our relationship, and most E.U. law (which now comprises 80% of the laws we must obey¹) is passed silently, merely rubber stamped by our own parliament. 

The foundations for what has become the European Union can be attributed to a number of sources. Many quote Jean Monnet as being the founding father of European Unity, and indeed he did set up the Action Committee for the United States of Europe. According to Philip Day's video "The Real Face of the European Union", in June 1940 Reichsmarschal Hermann Goering of the Luftwaffe reviewed Operation Sea-Lion (the plan to invade Britain) with Hitler. He also discussed with Hitler and other Generals a new plan for economic and political unification throughout Europe after victory, called the Europaeische Wirtschaftliche Gemeinschaft (European Single Economic Community). John Laughland's excellent if somewhat academic book "The Tainted Source" discusses the foundation ideas of the European Union being based in national socialism, and not democracy.

The European Coal and Steel Community represented the most recognisable form of what we know as an integrated Europe. The members (West Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy and Luxembourg) signed the Treaty of Rome in March 1957, in which they agreed to establish (with Euratom) the European Economic Community, or Common Market, which came into being on January 18, 1958. It is this treaty that contains the phrase that [member states] are "......determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe." Although negotiations had taken place by previous Prime Ministers, it was the Conservative leader Edward Heath (later knighted) who negotiated our entry into the Common Market, and this came into effect on 1st January 1973.

From the Common Market, the organisation evolved into the European Economic Community and then its current identity, the European Union. Further treaties have been signed in 1986 (the Single European Act - by Margaret Thatcher), 1992 (Maastricht - by John Major), 1997 (Amsterdam) and 2001 (Nice - both by Tony Blair). Membership has grown to 27 nations, with a view to admitting another 7 states by 2012. Inarguably, our membership and major treaties have been signed by Conservative Prime Ministers, in which they have increasingly surrendered power, authority, autonomy and sovereignty away from our country, most controversially over agriculture, fisheries, trade and immigration policy. (The controversial Common Agricultural Policy, which has supposedly been under continual reform since the mid-1980's, currently costs the U.K. taxpayers at least £15 billion per year!). In the years 2000 to 2004, our trade deficit (importing more than exporting) with the E.U. was £108 billion, according to chapter 9 of H.M. Treasury Balance of Payments (Pink Book) for 2005; it was £32 billion pounds in 2004 alone. All this just for "the privilege" of trading with only 6% of the world's population!

As of September 2007, the E.U. Constitution (which was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005), has been dressed up in the form of a Treaty which will be more difficult to strike down due to Qualified Majority Voting (QMV, which was expanded in the Single European Act and Treaty of Nice). This treaty makes provision for a Foreign Minister of the E.U, a permanent President, and the framework for a European Defence Force. One of the architects of the Constitution, the Birmingham Labour MP Gisela Stuart, admitted that the Treaty was "....96% the same as the Constitution...", that changing it from a Constitution into a Treaty was "...a deeply dishonest process." As important as this treaty seems to be, Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused the British people a referendum on the issue, despite one being promised by previous Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Perhaps the final act in the abolition of the United Kingdom as a sovereign, independent and self-determining nation will be the abandonment of the Pound sterling in favour of adopting the European single currency, the euro. Control of our entire economy, including gold reserves (220 tonnes at Feb. 2008!), much public spending policy and all fiscal policy would be permanently transferred to the European Central Bank as a condition of joining. (This was the bank constructed in Frankfurt with a luxurious all-marble and gilt foyer, and was nicknamed "The Glistening Bank").

Of the 27 member nations, only a few are net contributors (countries who pay in more than they receive), and the U.K. is by far the second largest contributor, beaten only by Germany. Much of the advancement made by European countries in terms of social progress, infrastructure spending, and joining the euro (costs unknown!), has been funded by the three biggest net contributors, i.e. the taxpayers of Germany, the U.K., and France.

The finances of the E.U. are in such persistent disarray that the Court of Auditors has been unable to sign off the annual accounts for the last 15 years (as at November 2010), as they cannot agree on the amount to 'write down' (allocate) to fraud, corruption and incompetence.

¹ ‘In ten years, 80% of the laws on the economy and social policy will be passed at a European not the national level.’ Jacques Delors, European Commission President, 1985-1995