Daily Express becomes the first national newspaper to campaign for withdrawal from the EU

From The Telegraph by Daniel Hannan:

Daniel Hannan

Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the European Union is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free.

Daily Express becomes the first national newspaper to campaign for withdrawal from the EU

By Daniel Hannan Politics Last updated: November 25th, 2010

168 Comments Comment on this article

Not before time...Not before time…

Since 2001, opinion polls have registered a majority against EU membership. Yet, until yesterday, not a single national newspaper, nor any of the parties represented in the House of Commons, took this view: ultimate proof of this blog’s obsessive contention that people are wiser than their leaders.

It depends on precisely how you ask the question but, excluding the don’t knows, some 55 per cent of Britons would vote to leave the EU tomorrow . But their opinion is shared by just 2 per cent of their MPs – less than one per cent if we exclude the Ulster parties.

Today, the first national newspaper added its voice to the chorus. And what a melodic voice. In a front-page editorial, The Daily Express makes the case in largely economic terms, and in internationalist language:

Taking Britain out of the EU should not be seen as a move to “Little Englandism”. On the contrary, ours is a great trading nation with markets all over the world. The time has come to develop our neglected trading links with the new global powerhouses such as China and India.

Quite. We Eurosceptics love Europe: we know its cultures, speak its languages, admire its nations, cheer their patriotisms. We simply recognise that there is a wider world out there: a world that is growing while the EU is shrinking.

I contributed a short article to the Express, pointing out the economic disadvantages of membership. For me, the clinching statistics are those produced by the European Commission itself. Benefits of the single market: €120 billion a year. Cost of EU regulation: €600 billion a year. Go figure.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

11 Replies to “Daily Express becomes the first national newspaper to campaign for withdrawal from the EU”

  1. See what I meant in the comment on the other thread about the EU, things are starting to turn around. They won’t turn as fast as you want them to but they will turn.

  2. Most folks already know that the EU is a dismal failure. Home rule and local legislation were tossed aside all government comes from the throne in Brussels. The people of the EU nations have been had, sold out by the very elected officials that were supposed to serve them.

  3. Apart from the economic case, there are other more important reasons to leave the EU

    1. We become once again a sovereign country, with a monarch that is our head of state, rather then some invisible bureaucrat of the EU. We cease to be a colony the EU.
    2. Our PM becomes responsible to none but our own parliament, and not a servant of the EU.
    3. Our parliament becomes what it was always meant to be, the representatives of us commoners.
    4. Parliament becomes supreme
    5. MPs start to do what they were supposed to do – a check on the executive, and the primary source of legislation.
    6. With the huge powers that the people have historically invested in MPs, MPs will no longer be mere appendages of the EU, thus spend their time accumulating money using novel means, but will take pride in their office.
    7. Our judiciary will be guided by Common law, rather then EU laws that are inimical to our traditions.

    We have much to be proud of in our traditions. They are after all the basis of the US constitution and Bill of Rights. To have willy-nilly chucked them all out, and then having to pay for the pleasure to the tune of tens of billions every year, is carelessness carried to extremes.

    If we left the EU, the dislike of the EU will cease to be transferred to Europe, and we will, as a consequence, become better Europeans, more amenable to cooperate on issues that concern Europe as a whole.

  4. Spot on DP111. I will add to that by saying that a nation that has its sovereignity intact is less likely (as is the case of Switzerland) of giving in to PC nonsense emanating from Brussels.

  5. Given the direction of Europe in the past few years, and the utter lack of 1st Amendment type of freedoms, I think countries of the EU should abandon it.
    Freedom and simplicity are better than totalizing ideology.

  6. eyeore

    Thanks. I missed that.

    OTH, if we were a sovereign nation, we would have control of our borders and much else besides. It is EU immigration law that prevents us from deporting foreigners convicted of serious offences ( Micheal Howard found this out the hard way). It is EU law that prevents us from rejecting blatantly false asylum claims etc.

  7. DP111 you are right about almost all you said, but the politicians will never take pride in what they are doing unless it is ordering people around, remember lawyers are motivated by money and politicians are motivated by power, they want money to use to buy more power.

  8. Bla bla bla bla !!!!

    Monarchy, common law, Belgium bla bla bla !!!!!

    Leaving the EU will not solve the heart of the problem.

    The west has taken or stolen so much from their rich foundation and spent it on socialism with not much to show for it. It is the silly myopic European mind that is the problem.

    Same problem in Canada that sometimes resemble a big Sweden.

    The West should be ashamed of itself. Stop blaming the IMF or low interest rates or the EU. Itis the Western brain, that has ruined the future of our childrenand grandchildren for voting for left leaning govts since FDR.

    India, China and Russia have very low debts. Europe does. Europe is not the future.

    It is easyto laugh at the EU butCanada could be in the same situation and forgood merit; Bloc Quebecois, NDP and Liberals have been in control or close to being in control or had a very very high influence on the budget for the last 18 years.

    Canada was a serious nation founded by tough people tha now vote like childish left wing moonbats. And our generals, McKenzie and Dallaire sound like left wing moonbats, petrified of Islam to where they will never mention the “m” word.

    Canada no longer has a serious furniture or textile industry. Thanks to CSST, UI, high taxes, penalties if docs are filed late, prop taxes, they are gone now.

  9. We have been down before and pulled out, don’t bet against us doing it again, the war will be long, hard and bloody but in the end the West will win.