4. Brexit and No End

Davis is on record that negotiating a Brexit treaty would be easy and could be done within months, continental industries would pressure their governments to grant the UK a bespoke agreement for fear of losing the British market, and that the UK should close ist airspace to EU flights in order to exert pressure. The fact that all eastern air routes from the UK lead across EU airspace did apparently not occur to him. In November 2018 he donned full battle fatigue of a pilot of the Battle of Britain.

Personal communication to the author.

Two quotes from the parliamentary debates of 1972 may illustrate this point. “It is abundantly obvious that this Bill does nothing to qualify the sovereignty of Parliament.” (Lord Hailsham, Lord Chancellor). “The ultimate supremacy of Parliament will not be affected.” (Sir Geoffrey Howe, Solicitor General). Vernon Bogdanor: Beyond Brexit. Towards a British Constitution, London, I.B.Tauris (2019), pp. 57–72.

Ireland has a Common Law system; Malta has a hybrid system that mixes civil law and common law influences.

Such as the Centre for European Reform, Open Europe, European Policy Forum, and the Institute for Government.

Since the Norman Conquest, England had been continuously involved on the continent. In the late twelfth and late fourteenth centuries, England controlled more territory on the continent than the King of France. The English monarchy laid claim to the throne of France from 1340 until 1802 (Treaty of Amiens). Until that date, it carried the French lilies in the royal coat of arms to reaffirm that claim publicly.

The monarchs of England still exercise the function of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Strictly speaking, no King or Queen of England ever came from an English background: The Plantagenets were French, the Tudors Welsh, the Stuarts Scottish, William III and Anna were Dutch and the Hanoverians and the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha were German. Only during the Great War in 1915 did the monarchy change its name to the current House of Windsor. Prince Philip was born a Battenberg, an old noble family from Hesse. The British branch changed their name to Mountbatten in 1917. Mary, the wife of George VI, was Scottish. Charles, the son of Elizabeth II, was the first member of the Windsor family to take an English wife—twice.

The United Kingdom is the only modern state that defines itself through its form of government (monarchy) without reference to a nation or a territory (although strictly speaking it is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; but then what about Gibraltar and the other dependencies?). The only other state that defined itself exclusively through its form of government without reference to people or territory disappeared in 1990. It was the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable inconsistency in this position that even the most fervent free-marketeers do not dare to attack the NHS—which is arguably a foreign body of socialist, collective inspiration in the British tradition of liberal, individualistic self-responsibility.

Daily Mail, 4 November 2016 and 19 April 2017.

Der Spiegel: David Davis erhebt schwere Vorwürfe gegen Deutschland und die EU, Der Spiegel 11 January 2019 (http://​www.​spiegel.​de/​politik/​ausland/​brexit-david-davis-erhebt-vorwuerfe-gegen-deutschland-und-die-eu-a-1247566.​html, 14 Jan. 2019).

Boris Johnson on 30 September 2016: “I’m rather for having my cake and eating it, too.” (https://​www.​thesun.​co.​uk/​news/​1889723/​boris-johnson-joins-forces-with-liam-foxand-declares-support-for-hard-brexit-which-will-liberate-britain-to-champion-free-trade/​, 23 May 2018). On 24 November 2018, at the DUP party congress in Belfast, Johnson demanded: “Junk the backstop and agree that neither side will introduce a hard border in Northern Ireland.” Most of the national-conservative Tories despise the Irish. The Duke of Wellington was born in Dublin. When someone called him Irish because of that, he remarked condescendingly: “Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.”

Jeremy Hunt pointed out during his visit to Berlin (22 July 2018) that the chance of a no-deal Brexit was growing each day and that there was a danger of sleepwalking into an abyss. A chaotic, catastrophic Brexit would probably shape the attitude of his countrymen to the EU for generations and could destroy relations across the Channel for a long period.

Many prominent campaigners for Leave argued with completely unrealistic wishful fantasies. David Davis boasted in the House of Commons in January 2017 he could present a treaty that would guarantee all of the privileges of EU membership and open up the freedom to conclude bilateral free trade agreements with the rest of the world. Liam Fox asserted a Brexit treaty would be the easiest treaty to negotiate in history.

And do not forget the indisputable Remain vote in Gibraltar, which does not form part of the UK, but is vitally touched by Brexit. Gibraltar voted 96% for Remain (turnout 84%).

Vernon Bogdanor argues that devolution has already profoundly changed the constitutional position within the UK, and that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a different view of this from Westminster. “In terms of what is constitutional, however, there is no longer an agreed and shared understanding of what the British constitution actually is in the four parts of the United Kingdom.” Vernon Bogdanor: Beyond Brexit. Towards a British Constitution, I.B.Tauris, London (2019).

Katy Hayward: Is the DUP completely out of step with the wishes of Northern Ireland?, The UK in a changing Europe, 28 March 2019 (https://​ukandeu.​ac.​uk/​is-the-dup-completely-out-of-step-with-the-wishes-of-northern-ireland/​, 1 April 2019).

Each Member of Parliament has to take an oath of loyalty to the Crown before they can take a seat in the House of Commons. Since Sinn Féin refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the British Monarchs in Northern Ireland, all members of Sinn Féin have refused to take that oath. Consequently, they have been barred from taking a seat in the House of Commons.

Mary C. Murphy: Transition and Ireland/Northern Ireland (http://​ukandeu.​ac.​uk/​wp-content/​uploads/​2018/​09/​UKICE-Transition-Report.​pdf, 3 October 2018).

The historian Roy Foster remarks: “The days of contraband checks, identity interrogations and angry queues had long been gone. To assume that they cannot return after Brexit is another instance of wishful (or rather slothful) thinking.” Roy Foster: The Return of the Repressed, Times Literary Supplement, 11 July 2017 (https://​www.​the-tls.​co.​uk/​articles/​public/​brexit-irish-question-roy-foster/​, 7 December 2018).

On 19 January 2019 a car bomb exploded in Londonderry in front of a court house. No one was killed or injured. It remains unclear whether this was an isolated spontaneous act or whether it might be the upbeat to more of the same to come.

The Irish government in Dublin finds itself faced with a Hobson’s choice: The only real threat it can wield lies in scuttling Brexit because of the border question. But that is also the worst option for the Republic of Ireland, which is heavily dependent on the British market for valuable exports. It means threatening to re-introduce border controls in order to avoid such controls—an option that is not too convincing. Dublin is desperate to avoid controls—and some Tories would like to see Dublin in that quandary. Dublin insists on the backstop, but the backstop can only be had with a treaty. To block that treaty in order to enforce the backstop is not a promising strategy.

Ever since 1998, Northern Ireland had a regional government in Stormont that consisted of a mandatory coalition formed jointly by the strongest unionist party and Sinn Féin. Both hostile groups had access to massive monetary transfers from the USA, from the EU and from London that were destined to support the peace process. In 2017, this mandatory coalition broke down. Northern Ireland is now administered from London and nothing indicates that this crisis might be overcome soon. Brexit is stoking old fears and suspicions because it introduces a new unpredictable dynamism into an already tense situation. Each side is afraid it might be sacrificed on the altar of English interests. Arlene Foster has called for direct rule, which would mean that London would assume all public responsibilities in Northern Ireland and would suspend all regional institutions. London has so far resisted the temptation to resume full responsibility in Northern Ireland. Brexit makes it less likely that Northern Ireland will find a way back to a precarious local balance of forces. Paralysis in Stormont implies inevitably greater involvement of London.

This is known among British constitutional lawyers as the West Lothian Question. A preliminary answer was found in 2015 when Parliament approved the English votes for English (EVEL) process. Under the process, which was made in the form of Standing Orders, legislation affecting only England requires majority support from English MPs.

The founders of SDP in 1981 were David Owen, Roy Jenkins (later President of the Commission in Brussels), Bill Rogers and Shirley Williams. In 1988, SDP and the Liberal Party coalesced to form the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Another MP left the Labour party the day after TIG was set up, closely flowed by a trio of Tory MPs later that week.

Anand Menon/Alan Wager: Can Change UK Break Up the British Two-Party System?, Foreign Affairs, 8 April 2019 (https://​www.​foreignaffairs.​com/​articles/​united-kingdom/​2019-04-08/​can-change-uk-break-british-two-party-system?​utm_​medium=​newsletters&​utm_​source=​fatoday&​utm_​content=​20190408&​utm_​campaign=​FA%20​Today%20​040819%20​Party%20​Divisions%20​in%20​the%20​United%20​Kingdom%2C%20​Netanyahu%27s%20​Referendum%2C%20​Xi%27s%20​China%20​Model&​utm_​term=​FA%20​Today%20​-%20​112017, 9 April 2019).

Labour is preferred by 41% of the electorate. The Tories trail with 36%, a full 5% behind.

In his regular column in The Telegraph, Boris Johnson defined the two most important tasks of the Tories: To deliver Brexit and to keep Corbyn out of Number 10. (The Telegraph, 31 March 2019, https://​www.​telegraph.​co.​uk/​politics/​2019/​03/​31/​tories-need-get-brexit-learn-believe-britain/​, 1 April 2019).

This was a presumptuous assumption since the 1975 referendum had already proved powerless in bringing the EU debate to an end. Labour published a manifesto for the general election in 1983 that contained an explicit demand to leave the EU—without any further referendum. Ever since, it must have been clear that a referendum has a rather short half-life. It comes as a surprise that after so many disillusioning experiences so many people still believe the myth that a referendum could put a question to rest ‘once and for all’, ‘finally’, ‘irrevocably’ or even ‘for all times’. It seems so obvious that each referendum is valid only until the next one—just as each election is always superseded by a following election. All politics is in flux and the hope to fix some eternal truths into this kaleidoscope is vain, absurd and downright dangerous.

Some English commentators, never loath to coin a pun, speak of a ‘neverendum’.

Some even play with Rees-Mogg’s Christian name: Jacob. Why not call his followers Jacobins? The Economist called the members of the ERG, which is headed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, sans culottes. The Economist: The group that broke British politics. The hardline Brexiteers of the European Research Group have upended all political norms, 28 February 2019.

Some maintain it is still latently informing French politics.

Within the Labour party, powerful groups are pushing for another referendum. Recently, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, took up this demand. (https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​commentisfree/​2018/​sep/​15/​people-vote-brexit-sadiq-khan; 20 Sept. 2018). In February 2019, under the impact of the first defections, Jeremy Corbyn finally agreed to make this position the new party line.

A referendum is not a regular, recurrent political event like an election. It needs specific legislation, the question to be submitted to the people’s vote has to be defined. The franchise can diverge from normal voting rights, i.e. age, residence, nationality. In 2015, it took ten months until all preparations for the 2016 referendum had been finalised.

Another referendum has been called for by—amongst others—Nick Clegg, Timothy Garton Ash, and Vernon Bogdanor, and now Jeremy Corbyn. Anand Menon contradicts them: A second Brexit referendum would be a painful, toxic waste of time, Guardian, 25 July 2018 (https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​commentisfree/​2018/​jul/​25/​second-brexit-referendum-toxic-waste-time, 24 August 2018). In the same vein Henry Newman: A second Brexit referendum would not benefit the EU, Guardian 28 January 2019 (https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​commentisfree/​2019/​jan/​28/​second-brexit-referendum-eu-peoples-vote, 5 Jan. 2019).

Regional referenda: Devolution for Scotland and Wales in 1979 and 1997, London Greater Authority 1998, Good Friday Accord 1998, devolution for the English Northeast 2004, devolution for Wales 2011, independence for Scotland 2014. National referenda: EU 1975, Alternative Vote 2011, EU 2016.

Sir William Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1770) and Albert Venn Dicey: Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885). Recently, Vernon Bogdanor has taken this philosophy an essential step further: Beyond Brexit. Towards a British Constitution, London, I.B.Tauris (2019).

It has been said that the Parliament of Westminster can do anything except turning a man into a woman and abolish general elections.

There are 830 Lords forming the second chamber and 650 members of the House of Commons, the first chamber. This results in a Westminster Parliament totalling 1480 members. The Chinese People’s Congress has 2980 deputies.

Theresa May’s government had pleaded royal prerogative before the Supreme Court in January 2017, claiming that it was entitled to trigger Article 50 without being empowered to do so by Parliament. The Court decided convincingly that the Act of Parliament of 1972 on which the entry to the EEC was based could only be repealed by another Act of Parliament.

The last Treasury paper dates from November 2018. It did not reflect the solution offered in the Draft Treaty of 25 November 2018.

For fairness’ sake, it should be pointed out that there are analyses that produce opposite conclusions, like papers of the Economists for Free Trade or Open Europe.

Many financial commentators see this as a sign that the currency markets were seeing a no-deal Brexit as highly unlikely.

Ernst & Young show that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the United Kingdom continued to grow after 2016, but the British share of total FDI within the EU had fallen from 21 to 18%. This decline was particularly sharp in financial services. That sector suffered a decline of 26% in the United Kingdom, whereas it grew at 10% in the EU27. After 2016, the United Kingdom increasingly exported FDI to the EU27 (https://​www.​ey.​com/​gl/​en/​issues/​business-environment/​ey-attractiveness-survey-europe-june-2018#section1, 28 October 2018).

Productivity of British industry is about 90% of the EU average. It is 26% below Germany, and 16% below the other G7 countries.

Patrick Minford of the University of Cardiff is one of the few economists who expect positive growth impulses once the United Kingdom has left the Single Market. But he is hardly a neutral person, and his credentials as a serious academic come under severe doubt according to what he publishes regularly on the Internet forum Brexit Central.

In 2016/7 financial services contributed £68 billion to the balance of payments. They generated £72 billion (11%) of all tax revenue.

Figures for 2016.

In the first quarter of 2018, fish landed in British harbours had a value of £213 million. That is equivalent to an annual value of £850 million. The total revenues of Scotch exports in 2017 were £4.5 billion—five times that value.

Factortame case. CJEU judgment of 25 July 1991 (http://​eur-lex.​europa.​eu/​resource.​html?​uri=​cellar:​97139ccb-b4eb-4387-8dec-a6e2afdd240c.​0003.​03/​DOC_​1&​format=​PDF, 24 August 2018).

Pessimistic studies assume a loss of up to 75,000 financial experts with a resulting loss in tax receipts of up to £10 billion. Oliver Wyman: Brexit impact on the UK-based Financial Services Sector (https://​www.​oliverwyman.​com/​our-expertise/​insights/​2016/​oct/​The-impact-of-Brexit-on-the-UK-based-Financial-Services-sector.​html, 13 November 2018).

Unilever has retracted this announcement after much hesitation and internal bickering. Banks shifting a sizeable part of their operations include Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and UBS.

The slogan devised in the nineteenth century was not ‘Made in the United Kingdom’ nor ‘Made in Great Britain’, but ‘Made in England’.

EDF and EON operate under their own names. Scottish Power is in Spanish hands, and Npower belongs to Innogy, which in turn is owned by RWE.

Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962 and Immigration Act of 1971.

Scotland and Wales have about 140,000 people from the Indian subcontinent (2.4%) and 47,000 Chinese (1.1%).

Bradford and Rochdale are examples for these trends. Structural change leads to a change in population, which in turn implies cultural change. Both cities expect to have a non-English majority by the middle of this century.

…or inheritance.

The latest figures of the Office of National Statistics (summer 2018) put net EU immigration at 74,000, net non-EU immigration at 248,000 (https://​news.​sky.​com/​story/​non-eu-migration-to-uk-highest-for-14-years-but-eu-migration-slows-11566853, 7 Jan. 2019).

The total number of people employed in the NHS is 1.2 million. EU nationals constitute 5.6%.

They account for 10% of the total number. Doctors come mainly from Ireland and Greece, nurses from Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

Statistical evidence suggests that about 25% will terminate their contracts before expiry in order to return to their home countries.

This wording comes from Magna Carta.

What would a no-deal Brexit mean for universities and research? British institutions do very well out of EU-funded research programmes. That money could dry up, Economist 4 March 2019.

Imperial College London, Oxford, Cambridge, University College London, King’s College London, University of Essex, LSE, Queen Mary University London, Queen’s University Belfast.

BCG calculates that administrative changes, adaptations to new regulations, procedures and forms and modifications of production lines, logistics and supply chains will cost the British economy around £15 billion. Boston Consulting Group: Bridging to Brexit: Insights from Europlean SMEs, Corporates and Investors (https://​www.​afme.​eu/​globalassets/​downloads/​publications/​afme-bcg-cc-bridging-to-brexit-2017.​pdf, 10 Feb. 2019).

Railways in the United Kingdom are a story of impressive pioneering and subsequent bungling and an almost tragic decline. When the Eurostar services started in 1994, they ran in France on high-speed tracks. Thirteen years later, in 2007, they still rumbled on the old, 150-years old tracks from Folkestone to Waterloo with a maximum speed of 80 m/h. Only after opening the new terminal at St. Pancras with an entire new HS1 line could Eurostar travel with maximum speed of 190 m/h on British territory. This line was the first new railway line built in over one hundred years. The trunk line from Paddington to Bristol and on to Cornwall (Great Western) used to be a marvel of engineering when opened in 1841. Since then, there has been little or no modernisation. After partial electrification, new Class 800 trains were ordered from Hitachi that could run on electricity (overhead wire) and diesel fuel. Less than 30% of all railway lines are electrified, but they operate on three incompatible systems (overhead wire and conductor rail, different voltage). On 20 July 2017, the May government abandoned all further plans for electrification because costs exploded from an estimated £800 million to well over £3 billion. Since 1997, in over twenty years, just 65 miles have been electrified.

Almost all members of the United Nations are members of the WTO. Non-members include Belarus, some countries in central Asia, in the Middle East and in Africa. They are mostly insignificant traders, with the exception of Iran.

Among them Serbia, Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, Monaco and Timor Leste—hardly the champions of world trade.

15% of Irish exports go to the United Kingdom (27% go to the USA). Ireland receives 26% of its imports from the United Kingdom (17% from the USA). Since 1998, innumerable business relations and partnerships have sprung up that go right across the border with Northern Ireland, particularly in foodstuffs. That might give rise to some serious veterinary problems. The South of England is a chief importer of Irish agricultural products

They are the counties Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan. The separation of Donegal from the historic province of Ulster results in a bizarre borderline. Donegal is connected with the Republic of Ireland only through a small opening hardly seven miles wide. But it has over ninety miles of a long meandering border with Northern Ireland. The old border separating Ulster from the rest of Ireland was 140 miles long. The present border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is well over 300 miles long, separating areas that historically have been closely interwoven economically. The present border is an entirely artificial creation designed by politicians with a view to perpetuate British rule in the North.

After the 2016 referendum, the Irish government considered keeping Irish immigration laws in line with those of the United Kingdom in order to keep the Common Travel Area. On 23 March 2017, the Irish Parliament (Houses of the Oireachtas) decided that British border controls could not be conducted on Irish territory.

The border runs even right through the middle of a pub. In one part you can order pints and pay in pounds, in the other you order half a litre and pay in euros. A sign above the counter reads: “Please do not discuss politics.”

Duties on petrol and diesel are lower in Ireland than the United Kingdom. Trading across the border was a lucrative business. The devaluation of the pound has largely wiped out this trade margin.

Even then, controls of peoples’ movements would be unavoidable. Without such controls migrants from EU countries could enter the United Kingdom through the backdoor of Ireland. As a member of the EU, Ireland is bound to permit free movement of people and the Common Travel Area guarantees free movement between Ireland and the United Kingdom. If there is no point of control, all restrictions on immigration imposed by the British government could easily be circumvented by flying to Dublin and then crossing without controls into Northern Ireland.

Joining the EEC in 1973 laid the basis for a remarkable economic upswing in Ireland. Annual growth rates oscillated between 4% and 10% between 1980 and 2008. Ireland experienced a rapid structural change from a predominantly agrarian to a service based society. Per capita income rose from €7,000 (1980) to €45,000 (2007), earning Ireland the nickname ‘Celtic tiger’. Ireland successfully persuaded some international giants to establish their European headquarters in Dublin and to use Ireland as a hub for distribution within the EU. Dublin rose to become an important financial centre in Europe.

At her press conference after the rather disappointing Salzburg summit in September 2018, Theresa May declared: “Creating any form of customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would not respect that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom, in line with the principle of consent, as set out clearly in the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. It is something I will never agree to—indeed, in my judgment it is something no British prime minister would ever agree to. If the EU believe I will, they are making a fundamental mistake.” (https://​www.​gov.​uk/​government/​news/​pm-brexit-negotiations-statement-21-september-2018, 23 Sept. 2018). She was echoing what the DUP had prompted her to say.

The first was in 2017, when May promised £1 billion for Northern Ireland, prompting some commentators that that amounted to a bribe of £100 million for each of the ten DUP MPs.

All people living in Northern Ireland have the right to choose their nationality, including dual citizenship. Applications for Irish passports have shot up after June 2016. Demographic developments suggest that the part of inhabitants who define themselves as Irish is constantly growing. Among those above the age of 60, 60% declared themselves to be British, only 20% as Irish. Among those below 20, the proportion of those that are feeling British falls to 40%, that of those that proclaim Irish identity is 30%. The rest call themselves ‘Northern Irish’—whatever that means.

In 2017, Germany sold 800,000 vehicles in Britain, 310,000 in Italy, 285,000 in France and 230,000 in Spain. Taken together, the last three markets account for 825,000 cars made in Germany. German car exports to China were 260,000, but earnings were higher because China takes more premium cars and because of different pricing structures.

Boris Johnson at Wembley Stadium on 20 June 2016: “I must say that I think that it was extraordinary to hear that we would have tariffs imposed on us because everybody knows that this country receives about a fifth of Germany’s entire car manufacturing output—820,000 vehicles a year. Do you seriously suppose that they are going to be so insane as to allow tariffs to be imposed between Britain and Germany?” (http://​www.​heraldscotland.​com/​news/​14571296.​Boris_​Johnson_​_​EU_​tariffs_​would_​be_​_​insane_​_​if_​UK_​backs_​Brexit/​, 22 Jun. 2018). A day later, he remarked: “Germany is desperate for free trade.” David Davis echoed this sentiment: “In 1975, the EU was the bright future, a vision of a better world. Now it is a crumbling relic from a gloomy past. We must raise our eyes to the wider world. We are too valuable a market for Europe to shut off. Within minutes of a vote for Brexit the CEO’s of Mercedes, BMW, VW and Audi will be knocking down Chancellor Merkel’s door demanding that there be no barriers to German access to the British market.” (Speech at the Institute of Chartered Engineers, 4 February 2016 (http://​www.​daviddavismp.​com/​david-davis-speech-on-brexit-at-the-institute-of-chartered-engineers/​, 22 Jun. 2018).

This is particularly irritating since the German government appears to evade even modest increases in defence expenditure to reach 1.5% of GNP—let alone those 2% promised at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014.

The wings of all Airbus models are assembled in Filton, close to Bristol—roughly 1000 pieces a year. Some have joked that after Brexit Airbus could drop the first syllable of its name—for without wings it would produce only buses. Airbus warned in June 2018 that if there was a hard Brexit, it might shift its entire production out of Britain to either North America or to China. Similar warnings came from BMW, Siemens and VW. Jaguar has threatened to transfer production outside the UK as did Ford and all the Japanese carmakers (Toyota, Nissan, Honda).

Let alone Belarus or Ukraine. Even Russia counts as part of Europe and as a European power.

Morocco applied for EEC membership in 1987 but was turned down on the grounds that it is not a European country.

Macron’s En Marche party obtained 8.6 million votes (24%), Marine Le Pen’s Front National 7.6 million (21.3%). In the second round, 20.7 million voted for Macron (66%), and 10.6 million (34%) for Le Pen.

The Treaty of Lisbon consists of 358 articles on 260 pages in the official EU version. They are supplemented by 37 Protocols on more than 160 pages, two annexes and 65 unilateral declarations on further 40 pages. Protocols, annexes and declarations account for about 43% of the total volume of the text.

The Court of Justice of the European Union took on this name (and is referred to by the acronym CJEU) when the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009. Previously, its official name had been the Court of Justice of the European Communities, but was consistently referred to as the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The Court has interpreted EU law extensively in favour of harmonising and unifying the Single Market as demanded by the Commission. The following examples are some landmark judgments, some of which have come under muted but harsh criticism from national lawyers and judges.

The Commission and the CJEU are bound to observe primary law as laid down by the Council, but they have ample powers to modify the usually rather general and imprecise specifications of primary law through secondary law and through interpretation and application to substantive cases.

Anticipating Brexit, some of these countries have formed the New Hanseatic League which comprises the three Baltic countries, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and—for non-Euro matters—Sweden and Denmark. Together they strive for stricter EU-controls of national budgets, ceilings for public debt, and—as a last resort—heavy fines for governments that defy these rules.

Apart from the United Kingdom, it comprises Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic countries. Taken together, these countries represent 197 million people. Without the United Kingdom, that number shrinks to 131 million.

It consists of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, and Belgium. Taken together, these countries comprise 196 million inhabitants.

The redistribution would give France and Spain an additional five seats, Italy three. In the northern group, Finland, the Netherlands and Estonia would each win one seat. Germany’s number would remain at 96.

Another example how glibly the EU pretends to represent and speak in the name of Europe.

Ireland finds itself in a dilemma. The only option to exercise pressure, namely a hard Brexit without treaty, would also constitute the worst option for Ireland itself. The harder Brexit, the harder the border between North and South on the island or Ireland. Spain has declared that it will not accept any changes in the present status and border regime in Gibraltar. A British politician has threatened the use of military force against Spain should it oppose the consequences of Brexit, citing the Falkland Islands as an inspiring example. In 2016, inhabitants of Gibraltar voted 96% for remain (turnout 84%). Apart from old territorial claims, Spain could easily proclaim itself as the champion of the people’s will and reclaim Gibraltar. But this would constitute a dangerous precedent in relation to Catalan secessionists. Therefore Spain is keeping a low profile in this regard. Once the future relationship has to be negotiated Gibraltar could become a serious irritant.

This is a remark full of thinly veiled sarcasm, for the East End of London is traditionally synonymous with squalor, poverty, crime and misery.

In English ‘to communitise’ is linguistically almost indistinguishable from ‘to communise’ that has patently communist and collectivist connotations. The English language embeds ‘commissioner’ and ‘commission’ in the semantic neighbourhood of the police and military, not civil administration.

The European satellite navigation system Galileo is a case in point, along with the European arrest warrant and the CFSP. The EU would be well advised to proceed pragmatically rather than dogmatically in these areas. The Commission has declared that the United Kingdom would have to be excluded from certain sensitive technologies in Galileo (Public Regulated Service). The British government decided on 4 December 2018 that it is not worth continuing national inputs under these conditions and terminated its cooperation in the military aspects of Galileo. It has announced that it will develop an equivalent system in close cooperation with Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It is a completely unnecessary and useless step. There is no need for a third western satellite system beside GPS and Galileo. To exclude British components and British experts on grounds of security appears absurd. Why should Britain try to sabotage the system or pass sensitive data on? It is easy to think of at least a dozen EU Member States that would give greater rise to such suspicions. Galileo is a typical example of a rigid, dogmatic approach where a more accommodating pragmatic approach would have produced better results. It may be a good decision for the EU, but it is a bad decision for Europe.

The WEU was absorbed into the CFSP in 1999, implying special status for those countries that had been associate members of the WEU such as Iceland, Norway and Turkey. The United Kingdom could be associated in an even closer way taking inspiration from those precedents.

No-one has given clearer expression to this belief in salvation and redemption brought by the EU (others prefer to talk of arrogance) than Jean-Claude Juncker, talking like an high priest: “We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don’t understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.”; “If it’s a Yes, we will say ‘on we go’, and if it’s a No, we will say ‘we continue’.”; “I am for secret, dark debates.”; “When matters turn serious you have to lie.”; “Countries that vote No will have to put the question anew.”

A remarkable example was provided by the Lisbon summit in 2000. Its conclusions talk of turning the EU into the most competitive, most dynamic, knowledge-based economic space globally, capable of ensuring steady economic growth, better and more employment opportunities and better social cohesion. (http://​www.​europarl.​europa.​eu/​summits/​lis1_​de.​htm, 8 December 2018). These words are more reminiscent of a prayer or of the official communication of the central committee of a communist party than of a realistic political commitment. They were formulated and signed by all fifteen heads of state four years before enlargement, eight years before the global financial crisis and ten years before the Greek financial collapse, at a time when it was clear that China was set to overtake not only Europe, but also the USA. It was nothing but hollow grandstanding and irresponsible bragging.

Talking about the EU’s trade policy, one should not lose sight of its agricultural policy, hardly a shining example of international cooperation, efficiency or efficacy.