The EU is a Threat to Democracy | Jacob Rees-Mogg | Oxford Union

well thank you very much mr. president it's an enormous pleasure to be back here on this great occasion partly to give thanks to the mr. pitchy ufj trust and Banking Corporation who so Peter Tapsell who is sitting on the front bench almost opposite me who was given his first paper speech by my father I'm pleased to say organized 25 years ago 25 years ago when I was here you'll be appalled to know of all the things that happened the worst was when the ceiling of the bar fell in now this had two disadvantages one for the people sitting underneath it it was somewhat uncomfortable for them and not the result of the beer the second which upset even more undergraduates who had just paid their subscription I was at the bar was closed for a period causing considerable inconvenience and thanks to the enormous generosity of Mitsubishi UFJ the union building is now in really first-class condition and I'm really honored to be here to thank them on behalf of everybody and to thanks a Peter for having managed to do it and then to talk on my favorite subject which I can do for many hours but I'm told I've only got 10 minutes fortunately so much of the argument has been made by my honourable friend the member percent Peters who put the case with admirable brevity and wit the Honorable gentleman the member from Lincoln unfortunately was not as accurate in what he had to say under some little points that one picks up he was unaware that Scotland had more Conservative MPs than Labour MPs as late as the 1950s so it's not the case that Scotland has always been this socialist Haven that's a very modern innovation and a sorry one for the Scots he talked he talked about the Common Fisheries Policy this is the first time I've ever heard anybody tell our bankrupted fishermen who have been put out of business by the European Union that it's good for them because they can go and fish in Spain no it's not good for them because they can go and fish in Spain it's bad for them because we used to have the greatest fish resources in our territorial waters which have been taken by industrial Spanish fishing so we have bankrupted our fishermen not given them this great hope and then Croatia well I sit on the European scrutiny committee and the European Commission itself put forward document saying that Croatia had failed to meet its targets for an independent judiciary failed to meet its targets for getting corruption out of the police force oh but we'd let them in anyway because we believe broadly an enlargement of the process has gone on so long now it'd be a frightful bore to stop so it's not something that makes people do what they say it's something that supports the European Union in getting what it wants and following its policy objectives but let's just look at this issue of democracy within the European Union and the threat posed by it my honourable friend from some Peters has already told you about the scandalous Irish experience where if the people give a wrong result they have to get to vote again until they give the right result that happened in Denmark as well and it happened in Holland and it happened in France there in the case of Holland in France what did they do they changed the constitutional treaty into the Lisbon Treaty and then didn't allow anyone evade at all so you just push it through because if the electorate don't like it where you try and get another electorate who may like it but the whole basis the structures are not democratic let us take the three pillars the Commission first of all entirely appointed no democratic element in that the Council of Ministers that bit that represents the ministers who go out in this country and others to represent us decision making in the Council of Ministers is now almost entirely made by qualified majority voting and I thought you'd be interested to know that the UK has 29 votes in this system compared to Malta that has three that means per head of more tee's population they have 15 times more influence in the council of ministers ladies and gentlemen than you do so we're back to rotten boroughs really that you've I mean not a bad thing you may say you may like this when they were abolished it was said that no more could young people get into Parliament and as so many of you may be looking to parliamentary careers you may think we should introduce one or two for you at the next election but you better go off to malta because that's the rotten borough of the european union when it comes to the european parliament they're not 15 times better represented than assets are more modest 10 times better represented than we are so what sort of a democracy is that it's not one person one vote it's a gerrymandered voting system to support the objectives of the European Union and then I think the most scandalous is the European Court because the rule of law is essential to any understanding of democracy it is the platform the foundation that democracy is built upon the European Court has very serious flaws first of all it is a political court that it is committed to pushing the Federalist integrationist agenda without the support of the people but it also breaks and has broken and continues to break one of the fundamental principles of justice which is no man must be judge in his own cause and I shall tell you the specific case because it is outrageous that this should happen and undermines any residual trust one might have had in that body during the financial crisis the government's the council went along to the European Commission and said we think there's a big financial crisis so big that the wages of people working for the Commission should not be increased in line with the old formula as provided for in the treaties if there is a sufficient crisis the Commission whose salaries were about to be cut said no we don't want our salaries cut thank you very much and they took the council to the European Court the European Court judges sat there thinking if we agree with the council we will cut our own salaries so even at the worst financial cases in most of our lifetimes the court ruled it was not sufficient and they ruled that they should be paid more undermining that fundamental point of justice name-o judex in causa sewers I'm sure all the lawyers say different type of sewer that the judges live in as far as I can tell and let me move on from that to what is being done by the euro because my honourable friend from --scent Peters talked about Mario Monti now I imagine his distinguished audience the cream of the intellect of not only the nation but the world would not be the fan club of mr. Berlusconi indeed if I were to do a poll I doubt there would be many putting their hand up to say that they thought he was a great and decent and honest man they may disapprove of his private life they may think it was not quite aware gentlemen behaves but nonetheless mr. Berlusconi was democratically elected and it was not for the European Commission to say he must go and we're going to put in our man we're going to put in mr. Mario Monti government's democratically elected have been thrown out in Greece as well they have been thrown out in Italy by the Fiat of unelected bankers at the European Central Bank and Commission members at the European Commission this is a real assault on democracy because it means that what the electorate wants is overruled by the commissioners for our own people one of the main purposes of a Member of Parliament is to provide redress of grievance it is why members of parliament make surgery appointments with their constituents so if something goes wrong somebody is unfairly badly treated I can go to the minister in Parliament and I can say my constituent has been treated badly and if I'm right if my constituent is right this very often gets changed our system in that respect works remarkably well with one key ex action that is if it's an area of European competence and then there is nothing that can be done and I will give you a specific example the Constituent amar of mine who came to me a farmer it was being fined because a cow of his had died and he had not got the registration papers in in time he posted them in time but the cow careless animal that it was had died between Christmas and the new year when the post office is not working at its best whatever it's best is nowadays but nonetheless because of the failures of the post offices notification was a day late and therefore he was fined I wrote a very good minister actually a Lib Dem Minister but nonetheless a very good able man Oh time being predictive hearty political I was trying to be nice and he wrote back saying 'he's too bad so I read again and I said no no this is really unfair this man did nothing wrong and then the reply comes back it doesn't matter what you or I think this is decided by Europe and if I as the minister use my discretion such that it is the United Kingdom will be fined so redress of grievance when it's European smashes in to a brick wall a brick wall that is fundamentally anti-democratic but mr. president it is I feel worse than this because as we see this lack of democracy we are also beginning to see extremism on the rise in Europe for the first time since the 1930s when you see what the Euro does two countries the crushing of their economies the enforced austerity without that safety valve of devaluation you see that happening and you see extremist parties rise in Greece there is the new dawn we have heard that members of the new dawn have been arrested now that should trouble you on two counts either they've been rightly arrested in which case the electors have returned people accused of murder and other very serious crimes or else they have been wrongly arrested and we are back to where we were in January 1642 when five members of our own Parliament were sent for by the king that we are facing a fundamental attack on democracy so either way that arrest should make you tonight sleep less well in your beds but it's not just the new dawn it's the five-star party in Italy a cranky party of the most peculiar kind but will not settle down to form a government it's gone elected and says thank you very much now we're elected we're not going to do anything well not really a very good way to run a country and why has it come about because of the pressures of the European Union bearing down on the democratic systems of the Italians and in France miss lepen taking on the mantle of her father now has about 25 percent in the opinion polls for those looking to vote in European election so what is this great experiment doing it's helping once again the rise of the extreme right and in some cases the extreme left that is the threat to democracy that is there that is coming that is deeply destructive but the fundamental problem the real issue at hand tonight is that there is less democracy in this country because of the European Union because ladies and gentlemen however you vote at the next general election 60% of our laws and some say higher is made on the basis of European agreements where the multis proportionately out voters 15 to 1 whoever you vote for matters less than whoever somebody in malta votes for about the laws of our country and if you're unsatisfied with that if you want it changed I can't give you any redress because the United Kingdom Parliament the most ancient Democratic Parliament in the world has been made powerless that is the threat to democracy it is here but it is on the continent as well it is a frightening Spectre the best way to deal with it is to deal with our relationship with the European Union to put our own democracy first and foremost and hope that others follow

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 1,461,791

Rating: 4.7472339 out of 5

Keywords: Jacon Rees-Mogg, The EU is a Threat To Democracy, Oxford Union, Jacob, Rees, Mogg, EU, Threat, Democracy, Oxford, Union, European Union, Euro, Democratic, System, Voting, Europe, Public, Opinion, Eurozone, Economy, Politics, Election, Greece, New Dawn, France, Le Front National, EU Member, Germany, RT, Debt, Money, Somerset, MP, The Times, Oxford Union Society, Oxford University, University, Debates, Debating, Interview, Jacob Rees-Mogg (Politician)

Id: vUKjTPPcOdQ

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 11 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/werrt1234]

Is Mogg a possible future PM?

[u/LastSprinkles]

"Commission, entirely appointed, no democratic element there at all"

Couldn't the same be said for the UK government? Prime Minster, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor, none of these are directly elected.

ECJ is committed to pushing a federalist agenda

Stated without any evidence whatsoever.

Claiming that the EU kicked out democratically elected governments. The EU has no power whatsoever to do this. Otherwise we'd have had a Lib Dem government.

The amount of made up bullshit in this video is really staggering. I'm appalled that a serious politician feels it is OK to incite outrage, fear and hatred by just outright inventing fictitious transgressions.

[u/skinnydog0_0]

So what are the benefits of Brexit?

[u/ieu-monkey]

If the eu was more democratic, wouldn't that make it more like a super state and less like an international organisation?