A central piece of dishonesty by the EU Remain campaign is that you can "pool" soveriegnty. You can't. You're either sovereign or you're not. Brexit is about retreiving our democracy. We must vote to leave on June 23
John Redwood MP
On 12 June 2016 17:08
A small country can be sovereign but not very powerful. A large country can be more powerful but not sovereign, if it is foolish enough to give away its right to self government.
Remain seek to confuse sovereignty with power. The UK, they say, is more powerful because we “pool” our sovereignty with other countries. What nonsense.
You cannot “pool” sovereignty. You are either sovereign or you are not.
I am sovereign over my bank account. I can spend the money in it as I please.
If I add up my neighbours’ bank accounts they have much more money than I do, so collectively they have more spending power. That does not make me want to share my bank account with them, even though together we would have more money to spend, or more power of the purse.
Why don’t people share bank accounts with their neighbours? Because they do not want to have to agree every purchase and every loan with all the others in the shared scheme.
They fear they would end up not being able to spend their own money on their priorities. They fear they might have to carry a disproportionate burden of paying back any overdraft. People are wise not to “pool” their bank accounts.
So why do Remainians think it can work for countries? We now share a lot of our money in a common budget with the rest of the EU. We do not get back anything like what we put in. The handling and admin costs are high as well.
It’s not just the money where this is obvious. Because the UK is in the EU it agrees to “pool” its sovereignty over trade. That means we have given away our unique vote and voice in the World Trade Organisation.
We now have to argue with 27 other countries over what the EU representative will say on our joint behalf. Frequently, they do not say or vote as we would wish.
All the time the UK stays in the EU we are not sovereign. The European Court overturns Acts of Parliament and controls taxes we have imposed or wish not to impose. The European institutions take over more and more areas for their own decision.
We cannot decide how to raise all our tax money, nor decide how to spend it. We cannot make our own laws.
So, a once powerful independent country is no longer sovereign.
Earlier this week I was asked by a Japanese tv channel why on earth we were wanting to leave the EU. I told them that I noticed Japan did not enter a similar arrangement with China, and have to agree her laws, and parts of her budgets and taxes with China before making decisions.
As they do not do this, why do they think we want to have to agree our laws and taxes with France and Germany?
Mr. Redwood's writing is re-posted here by his kind permission. This and other articles are available at johnredwoodsdiary.com
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/6332/sovereignty_power_eu_remain_s_deliberate_confusion
