Okay, okay, I’m lying. Just thought I’d grab your attention with a statement that is obviously absurd…

Just stumbled on Ashley Mote’s site - he’s a British member of the European Union - and a Euro-realist (ie he doesn’t agree with their being a European union in the first place).

While our own politicians tell us that we aren’t handing over powers to the EU, that we’re still a sovereign and independent nation state, that we won’t be swallowed by that organisation and made into just another region of the Euro Super State other MEPs are more candid about their intentions:

“National sovereignty is a luxury of the past”
– Graham Watson MEP, leader of the liberal group in the European parliament, speaking after Tony Blair’s speech, 23 June 2005

“Presidencies may come and go but the European Commission is eternal”
President Barroso to Tony Blair, after Blair’s speech to the parliament, 23 June 2005

And then there’s this little snippet. Recall, if you will, that the EU is democratic. The MEPs in the European Parliament are elected by you and I and they create the laws that you and I then have to obey.

Okay, now if you know a little bit about how the EU runs you’ll know that that last statement is nonsense. Actually, the European Council - unelected, meets in secret, accountable to nobody - suggests new legislation, draws it up, debates it and then hands it to the EU for rubber-stamping. I know from a number of MEPs’ first-hand accounts that this rubber-stamping process is a farce, that the MEPs stand no chance of getting through the reams of paper presented to them and that, often, they just accept the legislation that the European Council produced and that’s that.

So I am not surprised to read this:

“The Council’s staff decide - and that’s it. The game’s over. If MEP’s want to influence decisions they have to find out what’s going on before it’s too late.” These are the words of a former civil servant who worked for many years with the EU’s Council of Ministers at the very heart of the European project. Alexander Stubb is now a Finnish MEP and - in his own words - an unreconstructed federalist.

Mr Stubb made these comments during a meeting of the Constitutional Affairs Committee on 21 April 2005, during a debate on proposals to create an EU External Action Service. Such a service is dependant on the new constitution being ratified by the member states, but the Commission has no intention of waiting for the democratic process to be completed.

His comments crystallised and confirmed the power of the Council of Ministers which always meets in secret. Each committee of the Council is composed of ministers or officials from the government departments of member states dealing with each topic under review.

On one famous occasion, some years ago, a British minister confessed afterwards to being astonished when he was asked to sign a communiqué on arrival. When he questioned the request he was quickly informed that the decisions had already been taken and he was there only to give his approval.

Mr Stubb has just confirmed that nothing has changed over the years. MEPs are still treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed on rich manure.

When you read into this EU business very little surprises you. Most European politicians are quite open about their desire to see a united states of Europe, a single political unit that does away with the whole idea of national sovereignty and which answers only to an unelected European Council.

In itself though, this doesn’t disturb me. It’s completely potty of course but there’s no law against being a little mad.

What really disturbs me is the fact that politicians like Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Gordon Brown are only too aware of this and yet they still won’t simply admit that the EU’s final destination is a single state with the United Kingdom being no more than a couple of regions within that state.

I wonder why…