European Affairs

That is why I passed a note to my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague)—because I want to get to the bottom of the matter—and, indeed, why I made my response to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe. I have great faith in my party doing the right thing, for the right reason and at the right time, but I shall have to wait and see. That is part of the problem, so I will continue to pursue my objective in that respect, just as I will continue to pursue my objective of returning the supremacy of this Parliament to this Parliament, because it is not our Parliament; it is their Parliament—it belongs to the people. That is why they deserve a referendum and why they deserve a Parliament that functions effectively. That is also why I say that this Parliament is a sham—because the two conditions that I have described are not operating. We do not have the supremacy of Parliament, nor do we have a referendum, so—it has to be said—this Parliament is a sham. In 1993, I wrote a piece entitled "A Brave New Europe", which was a chapter in a book, in which I referred to the fact that""No treaty, no piece of paper, will alter"" the fact that history repeats itself. I said that, at worst, we could return to racism and fascism. In The Times last week, I pointed out that I had made those remarks in 1993 about the rise of the far right. I also said then that the traditional conservatism in Europe was a""dangerous 'Conservatism' known to the authoritarian, even racist, tradition"." Look at the rise of the far right in Austria and Hungary, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Look at it—it is happening on the back of unemployment, immigration and the failure of the European Union. When the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith talks about all the achievements, I ask the question: what are these achievements, given the mess that we have got into with enlargement in the Balkans, which I mentioned earlier and which I have been concerned about in debates in the European Standing Committee? In 1993, I talked about immigration coming from the east. I spoke about the fact that we were facing""the prospect of enlargement to"—" in those days—"up to 20 countries," and about the difficulties of not bringing those countries into a democratic environment. Indeed, what we have brought them into is an undemocratic environment. That is part of the problem. I asked what would happen if they were to be flooded with new immigrants. That is part of the difficulty with the way in which the European Union functions these days. Finally, arguing for an association of nation states—a position that I have maintained ever since—I said that I had written a paper in 1991, at the invitation of the then Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, when I was chairman of the Conservative Back-Bench European affairs committee, having been chosen by a substantial majority of Conservative party MPs in a secret ballot. I was asked to write the paper for the Conservative manifesto committee and warned, as I wrote in "A Brave New Europe", that the direction in which we were going""would leave us on the outer hub of a two-speed Europe which would undermine the United Kingdom and the European Community itself. I was staggered when even the words 'independent sovereign state' were removed from the final draft. The lines for the battle of Maastricht were drawn—and it is by no means over.""What is being created is a craven, defeatist, self-destructing European Community riddled and corrupted by a fear of freedom—a Brave New Europe indeed.""The forces within this Europe—the artificially created Europe engineered at Maastricht—will darken and destabilise Europe as a whole. The real Europeans must continue the battle from within."" That is exactly what has happened. Indeed, I would go further. The most recent opinion polls show that 88 per cent. want a referendum, while 72 per cent. of the British people believe that we should break the rules of the European Union if it is in our national interest to do so and 68 per cent. do not want the euro. In answer to the question, "Does Europe listen to you?" 71 per cent. said no. That is the reality that we are faced with on a whole raft of matters, including the bullying of the Irish people.