Jacob Rees-Mogg explains why voting LEAVE today is an imperative for the British people:
You have a failed state. A failed state on the Agricultural Policy, a failed state on the Fisheries Policy, a failed state on the Euro, and a failed state on migration. That is what we have tied ourselves up to – but as we tie ourselves up to it we have lost our democratic right. Once it is a European competence, we cannot change the law.If you are British and you have not yet voted today, stop reading this, go out, and vote LEAVE. Choose freedom, for both yourself and your nation.
How you vote at a general election cannot change what happens, so the parties draw up manifestos, but anything they say on agriculture is all irrelevant. It’s all decided by EU. Anything on trade. It’s all decided by the EU.
Specific promises in manifestos turn out to be undeliverable because of the EU. The Conservatives, in their last manifesto, said that they would stop paying child benefit to people whose children did not live in this country. A pretty modest and reasonable request, but it is not allowed under European Law.
The Conservatives also said they would bring migration down to the tens of thousands from the hundreds of thousands, not allowed under European Law. So how people vote is of less importance.
In 1997 and 2010, the British people had the appearance of a complete change of government, but they could only change the government in relation to things that were not decided by the European Union. Anything that is with Europe is not any longer our democratic right.
This has a number of effects. Some of our laws come in in spite of the opposition of the British Government. We only have under Lisbon 8% of the votes on the Council of Ministers, which is lower than the proportionate share
We have one MEP for every 450,000 of population against one for every 70,000 from Malta. Again, beneath our proportionate share and more like the pre-1832 Parliament than the one we have got now so we cannot stop laws coming in.
David Cameron has lost every single vote in the Council of Ministers since he has been Prime Minister, forty of them since 2010, so we do not get our own way within the EU.
Then you cannot as a constituent, as a British citizen, seek redress of grievance once it is with Europe. This right of redress of grievance is something that has existed since Parliament first assembled in 1265. It is one of our most ancient rights, but once it is a European competence, that ancient right has gone.
The choice is: is your country Europe, and are you European? Or is your country the United Kingdom and are you British?
If you are European, you are voting for a bureaucratic state. A state controlled by an unelected, unaccountable commission. A state where your vote does not count.
If you are voting for the United Kingdom, you are voting for a democratic, free nation.
A nation with a long history of liberty. A nation where your vote counts, and you get the government that you want. It is a clear choice. A choice of vision. A choice of opportunity. A choice of freedom. Is that choice a European superstate, or a free, democratic United Kingdom?
