Democracy. A Brexit benefit.

The principal factor that sealed my vote in the Brexit referendum was that of the “democracy deficit”, so widely evident in the politics and accountability of the European Union.

There is no academic analysis of this deficit that can adequately explain or motivate sufficient anger or concern as to make it a central feature of any political campaign.  Either to join or to leave.

And yet, and yet, it is the very essence of democratic politics, of accountability of sovereignty.

Surprisingly the recent leadership struggle within Johnson’s conservative party does effectively illustrate how deep the EU  deficit runs and why it was and remains a powerful argument for leaving the EU.

The ruling party, or important sections of it, grew dissatisfied with the leadership of their party.   To resolve it, in their favour, required them to change the Prime Minister, sack the Prime Minister, change the direction of the Government, purge the supporters of the current status quo of the Government, to clear the Augean stables.

What followed was a bitter surge of party in-fighting and a vote of confidence which, on this occasion, the current leader survived.  It was bitter.  It was brutal.   The optics were sour and those involved unappetising to say the least.  But it was a democratic struggle for accountability, within a democratic system of elected representatives.    You may dislike the result, as do I, but to deny its authenticity as a powerful tool of democracy is to undervalue democracy itself.

Now it is beyond any question that such a demonstration of party democracy, such an open attempt to change the leadership of the county could not and cannot occur in respect of the leadership of the European Union.

There, in glittering Brussels, leaders of the Union are not elected.   They belong to no “party”   There is no governing party, indeed there is no opposition party.  Nor are they elected by the European Parliament, nor do they report to the European parliament, nor can they be nominated, or de-nominated by the European parliament.  They are untouchable by the ordinary democratic processes by which sovereign nations practice their democracy

It may be, you will say, that we, the democrats of the democracies, could have had such leadership challenges, such changes of government, such purges, before Brexit and that therefore nothing has changed.

But I hope you would accept that any such changes within the national politics of an EU member state,  hardly mattered, for most laws, regulations, and policies were decided for us, in Brussels.  

You can witness for yourselves, that today, the individual financial policies of all member states are now represented, on the world stage, by a European commissioner or by one of their many Presidents.     Increasingly the foreign policies of individual member states are now, on the world stage, represented, by a commissioner or President.    Brussels aspires to have a European military force of its own, under the political command of its commissioners and Presidents.

This is all very attractive to quite a number of leading European politicians.   Perfect in fact.   They can aspire, if they follow the Union’s fortunes, to themselves becoming a commissioner or one of it’s  Presidents.   Free at last, free at last, of petty party squabbles, free at last of accountability.   Paid extravagant gold-plated salaries, earn extravagant gold-plated pensions, and wallow in solid platinum expense accounts.  Free at last.

Many of Europe’s expired politicians, having failed to persuade their parties or their peoples to re-elect them, have gone on, somewhat automatically, to become commissioners and live the ideal political life without further accountability of any effective kind.  There is no need to name them; they came from all the parties, in all the member states..   So it was,   So it still is.   European power provides the opium and often the retirement home, for countless senior politicians.

It cannot be denied that the power of Europe to collect taxes is on a scale undreamed of in any individual nation’s capacity.   Equally, the power to distribute those vast sums of money is quite exceptional.   A new candidate for EU membership can expect infrastructure money, raised from all the member states, to pour into its coffers, on an impossible scale if they were to be restricted to purely domestic tax-raised revenue.  So it is of little surprise that more and more of the marginal economies of Europe wish to join and share in the tax treasure of the EU.

They are more than willing to surrender their sovereignty.   For what?    For Wales?