How can we make some of this happen?
Well, we have first to see that electing people to a semi-impotent parliament is only part – a small part – of the solution to the problem.
Secondly, we must be clear that in large measure the present government system itself is part of the problem, not the solution.
We are talking therefore not so much of a reform here or there, but more like a reformation in which the liberal pieties and false models of people are replaced with a better approximation to the world we actually live in.
We can for instance use modern IT – the Web – to force courts, public bodies, private firms to account for their actions where they operate against the national interest or the native people of this country or any group for that matter.
A website naming individual company directors supporting Britain’s giving up the pound brought the predictable chorus of condemnation from those half-hearted warriors in the battle, the Institute of Directors and Business for Sterling and others. But as I said in my pamphlet about Corporate Business and Europe**, we have no objection of course to directors of large companies supporting that or any other cause as private individuals, but where they do it as directors of public companies, – ICI, Unilever, etc where no vote on the issue has been taken by the shareholders, then they must be prepared to be challenged publicly.
Likewise when a public corporation like the BBC, publicly subsidised to the tune of 90+% of its revenues, reserves six out of twelve places for so called “traineeships” paying at the time (1994) up to £31K, for ethnic minority applicants, however they would be defined, in flat contravention of the law, it is up to us, as I did, to challenge them, or support those who did.
In my experience, public companies and public bodies are very sensitive to criticism, provided it is firmly and not abusively expressed – and there is a lot of it by people who are affected. Planning for example – of roads and bypasses – is an area of acute concern to those living in their vicinity, or directly affected by them. So why not develop the concept of the local referendum with the questions properly posed. What had the Newbury or Batheaston bypasses to do with anyone except those living there and the traffic regularly passing through?
With the policy I outlined on farming, these examples point the way towards a fundamental mind-set shift away from globalisation towards localisation, away from quango government towards self-government – minding one’s own business instead of everyone else’s.
This shift will prepare people’s minds for the biggest single step of self-government – Britain rejoining the ranks of sovereign independent countries – by leaving the EU. When that day dawns, Ladies and Gentlemen – as it will – there will be such parties, such bonfires of EU regulations from Lands End to John O’Groats, from Milford Haven to Londonderry. Our only thought in our rejoicing will be – how did we put up with it for so long?
Thank you for your attention.
* e.g. reported comment by a Chief Constable at Bramshill Police Training College: I don’t think the police should be “running round chasing criminals”.
** Business, Industry and a New Relationship with Europe (1999)