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The government of Europe is scarcely more accountable than that of China, says Christopher Booker |
Quite a few eyebrows will have been raised last week at the sight of our Prime Minister in China extolling the virtues of democracy. If democracy means anything, it is a system which makes a government accountable to its people and gives them the chance to replace it with another one. That certainly doesn't apply to the one-party state in China.
But how much does it apply in Britain, where almost everything our Government does is either dictated or constrained by decisions taken at a higher level by our new system of government centred in Brussels?
But how much does it apply in Britain, where almost everything our Government does is either dictated or constrained by decisions taken at a higher level by our new system of government centred in Brussels?
We are now largely ruled by a form of government which we can no more call to account than the Chinese can theirs. In effect we also live in a one-party state. And no one should know this better than David Cameron since, as a member of the European Council, he is obliged under Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty (aka the European Constitution) to put his loyalty to the "Union" above the interests of his own country.
In this sense, a more honest politician is Herman van Rompuy, the dim little Belgian who is now the permanent President of that European Council, and who last week reminded us that the purpose of the EU is to override the "egoism" which prompts countries to pursue their national interest. He was being entirely consistent with the principle laid down decades ago by Jean Monnet, the real founder of the "European project" – that the chief enemy of any attempt to create a supranational form of government is that form of "egoism" known as nationalism.
Monnet was not remotely interested in democracy. He wanted to build a United States of Europe, ruled by a political class of technocrats like himself, unaccountable to any electorate. His dream has now been all but realised and Mr Cameron is very happily part of it. So, in intoning to the Chinese about the virtues of democracy, is he trying to kid the rest of us, or is he just deceiving himself?
Monnet was not remotely interested in democracy. He wanted to build a United States of Europe, ruled by a political class of technocrats like himself, unaccountable to any electorate. His dream has now been all but realised and Mr Cameron is very happily part of it. So, in intoning to the Chinese about the virtues of democracy, is he trying to kid the rest of us, or is he just deceiving himself?
