UKIP unites with eurofederalists on 'subsidiarity'

8 September 2007

The former leader of the UK Independence Party, Roger Knapman, has rightly attacked the present leader Nigel Farage (both are MEPs) for signing up UKIP to the EU's (eurofederalist) idea of "subsidiarity". Nothing could be more dangerous for a party which claims at least to believe in democratic national sovereignty.

Having come within a few votes of winning the UKIP leadership election of 2000 one of the many reasons why I was happy to leave was the evident impossibility (in a party bereft of credible leadership and intellect) of persuading anyone of any real political substance to join and persuade the electorate that we were capable of joining other parties in a sovereignty coalition in Parliament.

Nigel Farage was by no means the only barrier to such credibility but his lack of intellectual rigour was always going to be a major stumbling block. Today we see why. Farage has never maintained a UKIP principle if he was offered financial incentives to abandon it. Thus when Paul Sykes offered millions of pounds the party effectively abandoned its objective of "gaining power to withdraw from the European Union" and instead said that they would adopt the methods of the other spineless euro-federalist parties and merely "hold a referendum".

Now Farage and many of his UKIP colleagues in the European Parliament – in order to absorb another vaguely euro-sceptic party from Romania into their "Independence/Democracy Group" in the European Parliament – have embraced the dangerous eurofederalist principle of "subsidiarity". This, Farage maintains, is "UKIP (voting) for things if they reduce power at the centre." Subsidiarity is of course nothing of the sort. Far from ceding powers subsidiarity is the means by which the central sovereign authority (The European Union) maintains its control. It hands down responsibilities not power. It decides what can be handed down to "lower" levels – like the nation states! – and it decides how many responsibilities are passed on.  Indeed by passing down responsibilities to the subservient nation states the Centre saves money. It means the nation states have the burden of administration and have to raise the unpopular taxes – the centre, having passed on responsibilities, will not be reducing its budget, of that we can be sure. Indeed the European Commission has itself made all this quite clear. Its "Treaty of Nice in perspective" defines subsidiarity in Protocol 30, clauses 2 and 3.

"The principle of subsidiarity does not call into question the powers conferred on the European Community by the Treaty, as interpreted by the Court of Justice. The application….shall respect the general provisions and the objectives of the Treaty particularly as regards maintaining the acquis communautaire".

The latter of course gives absolute, "irrevocable and irreversible" power to the EU where it has already taken control. In other words it is IMPOSSIBLE, once the EU has acted for the nation states to reclaim one iota of lost sovereignty in those fields.

So anyone who supports "subsidiarity" is not only a fool but a dangerous fool. This latest surrender of principle by UKIP is of course (surprise, surprise!) in order to raise more money and privileges for their MEPs.

In aid of the same money grab UKIP has even changed its policy on the wasteful, disastrous Common Agricultural Policy – it now seeks to "reform it"! Anyone see any euro pigs flying?

The Ind/Dem group signed the declaration because it hopes to recruit the Romanian Party Pin and its MEPs in order to keep its numbers high enough to continue to qualify as a "group". This qualifies them for a lot of money and facilities paid for by the EU Parliament.

Thanks to additional funding, the IndDem group, including UKIP, is going to move to new offices next month but such benefits would disappear if enough of its MEPs were to split off.

Roger Knapman wrote in his letter on May 13: "I, and a number of my colleagues, cannot in all conscience accept something which represents a major departure from what we believed to be UKIP's policy — withdrawal from the EU, a complete rejection of its authority (and subsidiarity) and rejection of the Common Agricultural Policy."

Well done Roger Knapman! But one good man does not a party make! If he cannot convince a substantial number of UKIP MEPs to leave the Ind Dem group on this matter of fundamental principle then UKIP is surely finished.

Rodney Atkinson is the founder of the Freenations and UKConservatism websites and co-founder of the British Declaration of Independence. He is the author of, among other books, 'Treason at Maastricht', 'Europe's Full Circle' and 'Fascist Europe Rising' available from www.freenations.freeuk.com/publications