We originally asked political leaders, MP’s and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates why such an alliance was important to push for a referendum on the continuing relationship of the UK with the EU. This new look site is designed to provide readers with raw information about the EU, so that they can read, digest and take decisions based upon fact rather than media and political nudging.
1. Country before party
Numerous opinion polls tell us that 70% of the voting public want a referendum on the EU.
Over the past 40 years Britain has been led, against the wishes of its people, into a political union by a discredited political elite without so much as a single vote on the issue from the public. The last time the public were consulted, in 1975, it was for a simple trading partnership called the EEC. No-one has agreed to a political union where the law of this land will be made by unelected officials in a far off land.
We believe that the forthcoming General Election should be the catalyst that forces that referendum. A referendum that simply asks the public:
“Should the United Kingdom remain in a political union with the other member states of the EU. Yes or No?”
In order to force this issue to the top of the agenda, not in another 5 years, but as a priority for any incoming government, we will be asking every PPC to unreservedly commit to putting the country before party by signing up to the principles laid out in this Albion Alliance.
We are not asking any PPC to abandon his or her own party, nor to set up a party in opposition, but to simply put the people whose votes they are asking for, and their country, before all else, irrespective of the Party Whip.
When they become a signatory to the Albion Alliance, they are pledging to force this referendum, they will be asked to carry the Albion Alliance logo on their campaign website and literature, so that you the voter will know that if you vote for this candidate, they have pledged to granting the public that all important voice on the future of these Islands, a United Kingdom, a land once known as Albion.
The public will then know when they are making that all important decision on who to vote for, a vote for a PPC who is pledged to the Albion Alliance means a candidate who is committed to a referendum, where we hope to find a majority of A.A. MPs across all political parties once the election is over. Such an alliance would also consider policies that are likewise mutually compatible and can be agreed with the members.
I have already made that pledge, and I urge you to write to your current MP, and then to all the PPCs intending to stand for election in your constituency urging them to make the pledge to the A.A., The Albion Alliance.
Thank you.
Ian Parker-Joseph
.
2. Democracy & Government
by David Phipps
To say that we have a problem in this country with the emasculation of our democracy is an understatement.
The argument that the state can create an ordered society is a fallacy, it is the people that create an ordered society. The basic problem is that we, the people, have ceded our personal responsibilities to elected representatives who in turn have ceded their responsibilities to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Whitehall and elsewhere, ie, Brussels and have become fatalistic in that they no longer believe any of the three established political parties truly reflect their wishes.
In other words ‘government’, both national and local, has become nothing more than a sham.
Politicians of all parties complain about the fact that voting numbers have fallen dramatically and ponder how this decline can be reversed. This decline has been self-evident since about 1996, since when turnout has averaged approximately 36 percent in local elections.
Consider the last time you did vote in a local election; what did you hope that your vote may achieve? A choice to which school your child attended? More police on the streets? Lower taxes? Cancellation of the planned local incinerator plant?
Consider also the last time you voted in a General election. Did you believe that immigration would be seriously cut? Did you believe it would make any difference to foreign policy? If not then one has to question why you bothered to vote.
Under the present system of centralisation whereby laws are dispersed downwards, where funds for social projects are dispersed downwards, local authorities have become no more than administration centres for national government and the latter have, in turn, become no more than an administration centre for laws handed down from Brussels.
Therein lies the answer to the reason for voter apathy, exemplified by the 60 plus per cent who did not vote and who believe that it matters not as nothing will change. I would venture the suggestion that as the authority of our elected representatives has decreased, there has been a corresponding rise in contempt for them, culminating in the ‘Expensegate’ furore.
The problem we have today can best be summed up with a sentence from the first inaugural address by Ronald Reagan, ‘We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around.’
For the reversal of our present circumstances two things have to happen. Firstly Britain has to revert to being a self-governing nation once again- then and only then will it be possible – local people must be given the opportunity of truly deciding matters that affect them in their own area.
Consider this: As Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan state in their work ‘The Plan’, many of the worlds richest territories are small states, often referred to as tax-havens. And the reason for their being tax havens is that they had low taxes in the first place.
And how did they achieve this? By having the advantages of efficiency and ‘small government’; efficiency through having fewer levels of ‘state management’ thus negating any possibility of waste or error and ‘small government’ meaning that ministers were more readily known to their electorate thus making it harder for them to evade responsibility for bad decisions by blaming others or hiding behind the complexities of procedure.
The one exception to this rule is the United States, however remember that the US governs itself in the manner of a confederation of small states, devolving key powers to its states and even counties.
Continuing this theme, consider also that there is not one area of government that has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament that could not be devolved to local authorities in England. On the subject of ‘small government’ it will be well remembered that the chief executive of Tesco boasts that there are only six levels of management between him and the check-out operator in his stores.
Politicians are virtually falling over themselves in their haste and wish to grant the people of this country more power. Since when, in a democracy, can the elected grant the electors more power?
This brings me back to the point made earlier that the electors, ie the electorate, have allowed the elected to gradually usurp power and through the electors not demurring, have continued the process year on year. In much the same way, prior to the Lisbon Treaty, has the EU usurped more power and now, with this treaty, there is no need for them to continue this usurpation by use of stealth as they have in the past.
As a result of this usurpation of power by our politicians and the EU we in the Albion Alliance believe that the time has come whereby this process has and must be stopped.
That is why we are seeking an undertaking from candidates standing in the forthcoming General election that they will put country above party and apply pressure on the government of the day, whoever that may be, for a referendum on our relationship with the EU, together with the restoration of sensible laws and policies.
The country, by a large majority, wish for such a referendum and it is their right that this wish should be carried out.
In conclusion, the sooner the United Kingdom becomes a self-governing nation once again, the sooner real devolution of power giving those at a local level the ability to decide the type of society in which they wish to live can begin and thus give the politicians their wish of greater voter participation and involvement in politics.
In writing this article I make no secret that the views expressed are those in Carswell and Hannan’s ‘The Plan’, a work that should be on everyone’s shelf who fears for the state of our country. It can be downloaded through the link on the Albion Alliance home page for the cost of £5 and believe me when I say you cannot find better value, bearing in mind the contents!
Please feel free to comment on this article in the forum section, which can be found in the sidebar on the right of the home page. All comment is welcome and, indeed, actively sought.
Thank you.
David Phipps
