1. If you want to understand the problem with political debate in the UK, then we only have to look at this government report on the European Union from 2010. (Thread)
CC @commonslibrary
CC @commonslibrary
2. The House of Commons Library is strictly impartial, but sometimes (as we shall see) when including opinions, it’s important to take into account more than someone’s job title or experience.
3. The report in question needed to cover the Factortame ruling that asserted the supremacy of Community law in the UK.
4. To get one of their opinions, they refer to a member of the legal team that challenged the legality of the Maastricht treaty.
5. This expert’s opinion is that nobody should be up in arms about it, and to repeat the constitutional position that Community law is UK law that, by decision of our parliament, is supreme.
6. The House of Commons Library then also refer to a member of the legal team for the Metric Martyrs.
7. This expert concludes that, since the subjugation of English common law and parliament to European domination was a principle war aim, it could be interpreted as the reverse of the Second World War.
8. That might interpreted as hyperbole, but it isn't.
In this clip, from the same year as the report, he tells his audience that we are at war with Germany.
In this clip, from the same year as the report, he tells his audience that we are at war with Germany.
9. Not just that we are at war with Germany, but he is willing to share prospective sides and dates of a land war.
10. Apparently, we’ve already negotiated with the Germans how we’re going to split up Germany after we win.
Very sporting of us.
Very sporting of us.
11. And we also learn that Germany was responsible for: The Great Depression, the Spanish Flu, the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Vietnam War, and control the Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Communist China.
12. Obviously this "line of thought" didn’t go well when the 2012 Olympics came around, but it also shows that these were his genuinely held beliefs.
13. But this isn’t just some Barrister, he was also the co-Chairman of the Eurosceptic think tank The Bruges group.
He has shared platforms and rubbed shoulders in the Eurosceptic community.
15. The House of Commons Library is not a political rag like the Telegraph, it is objective and thorough, and yet one of its sources for an EU report was on record claiming that the EU was a German plot.
16. In that context, this is a wholly inappropriate comment from a wholly inappropriate source.
17. Right now in the UK, in less discerning forums, people’s opinions are given air time because they are contrary, regardless of the appropriateness of the source or the substance of their argument.
18. This is dangerous and it really has to stop.
/End
/End
Alexander wants me to point out that the House of Commons Library isn't the government. (I will finally get this into my head one day)
And this does not reflect on the overall quality of this report of the House of Commons Library, or any other.
And this does not reflect on the overall quality of this report of the House of Commons Library, or any other.
https://twitter.com/AlexanderHorne1/status/1369262768369582081
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