POLITICS-EUROPE: A ‘Freedom Movement’ Begins in Britain

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 10 2003 (IPS) - Everyone agrees that Guy Fawkes could not have loved the British parliament if he tried to blow it up 398 years ago. Not everyone agrees that the European Union is trying to finish the job for him, but a growing group is now seeing the EU as a real threat.

"We want restoration of independence for our great nation," John Gouriet, chairman of the group ‘Defenders of the Realm’ told IPS. Independence from the EU, he says.

The group has rediscovered the English Channel as the natural divide between Britain and mainland Europe despite the new tunnel links under the sea. And it wants to claim Britain for the British before what it sees as the imposition of a new EU constitution on June 13 next year.

"We want at the least a referendum in Britain whether we accept this new constitution," Diana Coad, a Conservative Party member told IPS. She is among a group planning a nationwide protest march April 24 against acceptance of the new EU constitution in Britain.

Before that the group is planning to post a petition to every home in Britain, to 25.3 million of them, that is. That petition is meant for Her Majesty the Queen.

"We are asking the Queen to uphold her coronation vow," says Gouriet. "She had vowed to govern us according to our law and our customs. As far as we are concerned, the buck stops at Buckingham Palace."

The simple argument of ‘Defenders of the Realm’ is that the British constitution is above parliament, and that parliament has no authority to accept a constitution from outside Britain even if the British parliament accepts it.

British constitution, much of it unwritten, follows the convention of Parliament governing in the name of the Queen. The defenders of the realm are now taking the language at face value, and asking Queen Elizabeth II to do what she said she would when she was crowned in 1952.

"The Sovereign has power to refuse royal assent to any legislation that threatens, diminishes or surrenders the people’s sovereignty, their rights, liberties, customs and independence," the group says in a written declaration. Convention makes royal assent mandatory once an Act has been passed by the elected House of Commons.

The group is calling its campaign the Battle for Britain.

It is already proving a little more than some idiosyncratic bunch living in the past. The right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the Palace had begun to make inquiries about the legal implications of adopting an EU Constitution. An opinion poll conducted by the newspaper indicated that three out of four people want a referendum on the issue.

The group battling to free Britain from the EU is seen also as an offshoot of the Conservative Party, which is opposing the EU constitution on the grounds that it will spell the end of British sovereignty and create a European superstate run by eurocrats in Brussels.

There is some division within the Conservatives over the EU Constitution. The more right-wing element in the party – and that is much of the party – opposes the EU Constitution firmly.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been quick to announce that Britain will not accept an EU Constitution that compromises its right to set policies in tax, defence and foreign relations. He described the new Constitution as "tidying up" and as "simply a consolidation of existing treaties."

The draft Constitution is itself open to negotiations but it is expected to be adopted before ten new states join the EU in May next year.

Blair made it clear that the position of the monarchy will not change. That dismissal of any suggestions that monarchy could have a greater voice has provoked the Defenders of the Realm to step up their campaign.

The dispute centres around Article 10 of the draft EU Constitution which says: "The Constitution, and law adopted by the Union’s institutions in exercising competences conferred on it, shall have primacy over the law of the member states."

The Defenders of the Realm say this clause "destroys our sovereignty" and that it is "blatant deception to merely infer such illegal changes as trivia or mere tidying up. A barrister, especially one who is also the prime minister must know this to be deceit."

The British Parliament has "usurped" the powers of the Constitution, said Gouriet. "If we ignore this, tyranny will undoubtedly take root, then folly because we now face a much bigger enemy; not just trade union barons, but something much bigger."

Norris McWhirter, who runs the Guinness Book of Records and who has joined the campaign, says the EU Constitution "will produce a situation in which we will be ruled by a people we cannot dismiss, and people we have not in the first place elected."