At a press conference marking the end of the EU Summit in Brussels last week, David Cameron described his meaningless and pathetic attempt to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU as “a big step forward for a better deal for Britain.” It was actually a giant leap backwards for his credibility.
Truth is, if he really contemplates taking a step forward, Angela Merkel is waiting there like Lucy about to jerk the football away from Charlie Brown before he can kick it. With relentless predictability she tells him: “We made it clear we are ready to compromise, but always on the basis that we safeguard the core European principles which include non-discrimination and free movement.”
Ah, yes, the sacred, inviolable principle of free movement. The principle that so demonstrably chokes the development of the poorer eastern member states by allowing their most skilled and resourceful people to relocate to more prosperous western states. The principle that is so glaringly flouted by the same eastern countries that they erect barbed wire fences in their determination to control the influx of migrants and refugees. The principle that is nevertheless considered so sacrosanct that the EU would sooner risk losing the UK as a member rather than reevaluate it.
Let’s use our freedom of judgement while we still have it and use our freedom of movement to move away from the tentacles of this supra-national state controlled by a dysfunctional totalitarian bureaucracy. At the moment, we still have the freedom to say NO.
