Jenny McCartney The European Union launched a website last week to quash some of the more scurrilous rumours about its intentions. It insists that it did not try to ban bingo callers from using the term "two fat ladies"; it did not advocate changing the name of the Channel to "the Anglo-French Pond"; and it did not suggest that Britons be forced to liquefy corpses and pour them down the drain as a way of avoiding CO2 emissions. I'm glad we've cleared that up – but this list almost made me nostalgic for the days when people got worked up about reported EU directives on the curvature of bananas. The reality of recent EU rulings has been a great deal grimmer: last week, it was reported that the European Court of Human Rights has permitted David Cameron six months to implement its earlier order to give British prisoners the vote, or he will have to begin making hefty compensation payments to 2,500 inmates who have lodged complaints. This latest judgment was prompted by the pressing democratic concerns of Robert Greens, whose own respect for human rights is such that in 2006, he was convicted of the appallingly violent rape of a 19-year-old Dutch tourist who was visiting a beauty spot in Midlothian. The original case, five years ago, was brought by John Hirst, another enthusiast for human rights who was jailed in 1979 for murdering his landlady with an axe. Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, recently remarked with his characteristic nonchalance that having the vote could "widen the minds" of prisoners. I fear that Mr Clarke, a committed Europhile, was deliberately missing the much bigger point, which is that any such decision should be freely taken by a British Parliament, and not imposed by a European Court that treats our elected representatives like a line-up of naughty schoolboys. This kind of case might be brushed aside as a minor inconvenience by experienced politicians, but it can very quickly provoke ordinary citizens to fury – and with good reason, for it represents the most blatant erosion of our judicial sovereignty. It chimes, too, with the popular feeling that the European Union is increasingly overstepping the mark, by imposing limits on matters such as the working hours of British junior doctors – rather like a neighbour who first popped round to help fix the garden fence, but is now brusquely telling your children when to go to bed. Not so long ago, "European integration" had a pleasantly undefined ring to it. There was a misty feeling that if one appreciated Edith Piaf and the finer points of flamenco, then one was predisposed to accept a blissful, deeper merging. Metropolitan bien-pensants generally thought that Euroscepticism was for boss-eyed xenophobes with a lingering suspicion of anything cooked with garlic. I never quite understood this. So long as any European entity confined itself to forging agreements on trade, food labelling, pollution and clean beaches, I could easily get the point. But I couldn't see why anyone would want to corral a diverse bunch of countries, with varying governments and economic policies, into one currency: it was like trying to train a gang of mice to do synchronised swimming. And so, when asked what I thought of Britain joining the euro, I would have to admit that I wasn't a fan, and quietly shuffle to my place among the unfashionable reactionaries. What seems strange to me now is that, with half of those Euro-mice barely keeping their heads above water, the very same people who were once airily pro-euro are talking authoritatively about how wise Gordon Brown was not to take Britain into the single currency – and even questioning the future of the euro itself. If recent events have demonstrated one thing very obviously, it is that, just because European integration was confusing, that didn't necessarily make it clever. Perhaps it is time for the British to make it unambiguously clear to politicians precisely how far in, or out, of Europe they really want to be.The EU has got too big for its boots
The European Union's ruling on giving British prisoners
the vote is a blatant breach of our sovereignty
Sunday 28 November 2010
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