To rule or to be ruled, that is the question . . .

For Many in U.K. Referendum, It’s Sovereignty, Stupid

. . . for Britain anyway. Choose wisely.

​Read more below the fold.

"The Bank of England issued new warnings Thursday about the risks to the U.K. economy from a decision to leave the European Union in June’s referendum. But for many people who want the U.K. out of the EU, the economic arguments are beside the point.

The big issue for them is to bring decision-making back to the Parliament in London and to reverse what they see as the creeping control Brussels has had over British affairs since the U.K. joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973.

For them, it’s not the economy, stupid. It’s about sovereignty.

Yet that raises the question about what sovereignty really is. In a new paper released this week, Robin Niblett, director of the Chatham House think tank, argues “sovereignty in international affairs in the 21st century is about securing outcomes, not about preserving autonomy.'"

I am sorry but this is wrong. Sovereignty is about maintaining republican autonomy in order to maintain the ability to secure the outcomes desired. Niblett's quote leads to tyranny. The failure to preserve republican autonomy may allow specific outcomes to be secured, this time. But, thereafter, there is no ability for the governed to secure future desired outcomes. Perhaps for a while the government will be benign but that never lasts. At some point an autocrat will begin to act capriciously, and then all bets are off. Sovereignty lost, the people will be subject to whimsical, capricious government. 

"The world, he says, has become more interdependent since 1973 and the idea of absolute British sovereignty is “an illusory notion.”

Among the many questions about EU membership, this then is critical: Does the U.K. gain more control over its destiny by pooling sovereignty with others in the bloc or by trying to hoard it?"

Pooled sovereignty is lost sovereignty, not shared. The EU does not offer Britain any pooling of sovereignty, but instead offers only an unelected tyrant, the EU government which will then force the Brits to do as the unelected demand. 

Free trade agreements, and NATO like shared defense agreements can handle nearly every real problem. A shared currency only leads to destruction as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, and, increasingly, France are finding. 

If the Brits wish to be subservient to the powers of mainland Europe so be it. 

Further reading:

Redefining Sovereignty: Will liberal democracies continue to determine their own laws and public policies or yield these rights to transnational entities in search of universal order and justice? by Orrin C. Judd (Editor)

This excellent compilation of writings on sovereignty is necessary reading to help parse through he flack, and chaff thrown up by the transnational entities searching to reintroduce tyranny into the world.