CIB videos show how we were betrayed

The Campaign for an Independent Britain has produced three short films of interviews with former Labour MPs Nigel Spearing and Eric Deakins regarding the early 1970s debates in Parliament on Britain’s entry into the European Union (or Common Market as it was called at the time).

CIB Chairman George West says: “I urge you to watch these three short films, which are essential viewing for everyone who cares about British sovereignty and democracy. In the films, Nigel Spearing and Eric Deakins, veteran Parliamentarians and heroes of the anti-EU movement, give us their unique insights into how we were duped into joining ‘Europe’. I regard it as a privilege to have been associated with these visionary people who had the courage to do all in their power to try to prevent Britain’s entry into the Common Market in 1972 and later campaigned for a ‘No’ vote in the 1975 referendum on whether or not we should stay in.

“Nigel was the last MP to make a speech before the winding up speeches at the third reading of the European Communities Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill was passed by an incredibly narrow margin (309 votes in favour of Common Market entry, with 301 votes against). It just so happens that on that very evening I sat in the Strangers’ Gallery at the Commons, believing that Heath was not being truthful and that only trouble lay ahead. I sat there worried sick about the future for my tiny son and daughter, and the future of Britain’s engineering and manufacturing industries in which I worked for over fifty years.”

Nigel Spearing on how Britain was duped
How the British people were duped
Eric Deakins on how Britain was duped

Making Europe an election issue

Parliamentary candidates quizzed on Britain's EU membership

Will the next General Election bring more Eurosceptics into the House of Commons? That's what the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB) - the cross-party anti-EU organisation - is aiming to discover through a major new initiative that it is rolling-out to constituencies throughout the UK.

Candidate2010.com will call on more than 2,500 would-be MPs to share with the electorate their views on the question of Britain’s future relationship with the European Union. While opinion polls show that the great majority of Britons believe the UK would be better off out of the EU, this view is currently not reflected by the majority of MPs or by leadership of the three main parties.

CIB Chairman George West explains: "The forthcoming General Election will see a large-scale influx of new MPs. Many of our current representatives are standing down this year - some of them due to the expenses scandal - and others will be defeated. So, whether or not there is a change of government, there is certain to be a transformation in the composition of the House of Commons.

"Candidates of all parties are already jockeying for position in their local media, sharing with us their views on everything from global warming to the siting of the local Tesco. But on the most important issue of all – that of whether Britain should be a free, sovereign nation, or a mere province of the European Union – there is huge diversity of opinion within the main parties.

"That is why Candidate2010.com is challenging individual Parliamentary candidates from across the political spectrum to tell their constituents precisely where they stand on this pivotal issue. Through Candidate2010.com voters can track candidates' attitudes to Europe. .

"We are calling on individual constituents to write to their would-be MPs to find out where they stand. Although Candidate2010 doesn’t urge people to vote for any particular party, those candidates who include in their election address a specific pledge to work towards the UK's withdrawal from the European Union stand to gain many extra votes, as opinion poll after opinion poll shows that the overwhelming majority of the British electorate dislikes the fact that this country is being dragged deeper into the EU.

"Whether or not the main parties want to face up to this all-important subject,CIB intends to ensure that the EU is a major issue in the 2010 General Election."

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HOW YOU CAN HELP

* Send the press release above to your local newspaper
* Visit Candidate2010 at www.candidate2010.com (username and password=’guest’)

Where will your next MP stand on Europe?

The forthcoming general election will see a large-scale influx of new MPs. Many of our current “representatives” are standing down, either having been caught with their fingers in the till over the expenses scandal, or have simply worked out that they are not going to win anyway.

Candidates of all parties are already jockeying for position in their local media, sharing with us their views on everything from global warming to the siting of the local Tescos.

But on the most important issue of all – that of whether Britain should be a free nation or a mere province of the European Union - many of those who seek to represent us are strangely silent.

That is why the Campaign for an Independent Britain has launched an important new initiative – Candidate2010 – which challenges would be MPs to share with the public their views on the question of Britain’s future relationship with the European Union.

Check it out at www.candidate2010.com

REAL UKIP

Is there now a need post Dec 1st to take to the streets?

Ten Years on

The TaxPayers Alliance is pleased to announce that the first 5,000 copies of their new book, Ten Years On by Campaign for an Independent Britain committee member Dr Lee Rotherham, are now available for CIB supporters to order free on a first-come-first-served basis.

Here's a taster of what to expect from the book, which features a foreword by The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh and an epilogue by best-selling author Frederick Forsyth: "If you traded something, made something, sold something, ran something, policed something, protected something, transported something, communicated something, fished something, grew something, stored something, repaired something, bought something, spent something, exchanged something, taught something, learned something, powered something, healed something, published something, researched something, reported something, supported something, Brussels had a say in it. The EU was everywhere. Now, ten years on, things are very different…"

Britain has been a member of the European Union for a third of a century, enduring all the waste, fraud and red tape that Brussels could imagine. But what would it be like if one day Britain just said ‘Enough’? Ten Years On takes us to a world where they have done just that. Dr Rotherham’s new book imagines a future where Britain is free to control its own affairs, to strike its own deals and to decide its own fate.

This is your opportunity to get a vivid glimpse of how the future could be very, very different.
Get your copy from: http://www.greateudebate.com/order/

Cameron must face reality, say Eurosceptics

Conservative leader David Cameron must match rhetoric to action if he is to have any chance of winning the confidence of voters in his ‘new’ policies on Europe, say Eurosceptics.

“Too many times we have heard opposition politicians talking the talk about ‘standing up’ for Britain in Europe,” said George West, Chairman of the cross-party Campaign for an Independent Britain. “Following hard on the heals of his climb-down over his ‘cast iron’ promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Mr Cameron has much to do to persuade the British people that he in earnest about reducing the role of the EU in our national life.”

“The sort of ‘a la carte’ Europe that Mr Cameron now seems to favour runs entirely contrary to the whole thrust of ever deepening European integration over the past fifty years, and is explicitly ruled out by the Lisbon Treaty which Mr Cameron now says we are powerless to repeal.”

Campaign for an Independent Britain also notes that the Conservative leader’s call for a ‘Sovereignty Acr’ is a clear admission by Mr Cameron that Britain is no longer a free and independent nation.

“Sooner rather than later the fundamental question of Britain’s overall relationship with the European Union must be addressed,” said Mr West. “Supporters of the EU are already raising the spectre that Mr Cameron’s policies will lead to Britain leaving the EU altogether. Good. Such an outcome should not be feared. A Britain outside the European Union would be freed from the straitjacket of rules, taxes and regulations that have crippled our economic life and right to self-determination for a generation.”

Challenging media bias

By Andy Smith

Press & Public Relations Officer, Campaign for an Independent Britain

On Britain’s relationship with the European Union, says Rod Liddle, former editor of the Today Programme on Radio 4, “The BBC is undoubtedly institutionally biased.” Liddle is one of a growing number of current and former BBC staff who have admitted that the Corporation has its own political agenda. Europe is not the only subject on which Britain’s official Public Service Broadcaster suppresses alternative viewpoints. Regarding “the other side of the story” on climate change, TV presenter Peter Sissons recently claimed that “It is effectively BBC policy … that those views should not be heard.”

There is a common misconception that Britain has a free, pluralistic and diverse media, and that the wide variety of political opinions expressed by columnists in the national daily and Sunday papers – including Eurosceptics such as Christopher Booker, Peter Hitchens and Simon Heffer – highlights this diversity. But while columnists like these undoubtedly provide a range of refreshing alternative viewpoints, including scepticism about the EU and climate change, they are not typical. Most newspaper editors and senior journalists are, like their opposite numbers in the broadcasting world, unashamedly pro-European and dismissive of Eurosceptic opinions.

The British press is far from diverse. Editors and senior journalists, including the lobby correspondents who report from Westminster, are guilty of “groupthink”. While a few columnists are willing to challenge the Establishment consensus on Europe, those in charge of the nation’s daily and Sunday newspapers, TV and radio stations, and leading press agencies, are not. The view that we are in the EU forever, and only extremists and cranks believe otherwise, is so deeply ingrained in the higher echelons of the British media that any organisation or individual calling for the UK to withdraw from the European Union is automatically written off as “beyond the pale”. This is the challenge that the Campaign for an Independent Britain faces on a daily basis.

In my role as Press & Public Relations Officer for the CIB, I am in regular contact with journalists and broadcasters, and try to provide them with a steady flow of news and comment from an anti-EU perspective. They listen to what I have to say, they take notes, and they sometimes even call me back later for more information. Very occasionally, they manage to persuade their editors to let them squeeze a quote from me, and a name-check for CIB, into their reports. But hardly ever will they publicise CIB’s call for Britain to leave the EU. Quite simply, we are seen as a useful source of information about Europe but our uncompromising withdrawalist policy makes us “too extreme”.

No newspaper, not even the broadly Eurosceptic Daily Express, the most maverick (and in some ways the most patriotic) of the national dailies, has been willing to promote the CIB or align itself publicly with our cause. That is why we have had to produce our own tabloid newspaper – Free Britain – and why we concentrate most of our PR efforts on the regional and local press which is less susceptible to the “groupthink” of the national media. We are also focusing much more attention on the web. In addition to our own site, www.eurosceptic.org.uk, and our blog site, we post news and information on numerous other websites and online magazines, and endeavour to secure online coverage wherever and whenever we can.

We will of course continue to fight to get our message across in the “mainstream” national media. But until the Great British Public wakes up to the true extent of media bias and control, and starts to challenge the pro-EU mindset of those in senior editorial positions in Britain’s newspapers and broadcasting organisations, CIB will be fighting an uphill battle.

Help us challenge the media consensus on Europe. Write to the editor of your daily or Sunday paper and urge them to give a fair hearing to anti-EU opinions. Write to the Director-General of the BBC and to the Head of News & Current Affairs demanding that the Corporation upholds its Royal Charter commitment to “due impartiality” and that it airs “all significant viewpoints” including that of CIB, Britain’s leading cross-party Eurosceptic organisation.

Join us in the Freedom Zone

Campaign for an Independent Britain are exhibiting in the Freedom Zone, on the second or third floor of The Bridgewater Hall, Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester on Monday and Tuesday 5 & 6 October. We will be in the company of 29 other organizations including The Taxpayers Alliance, The Freedom Association, Global Vision, BETTER OFF OUT, and the Campaign Against Political Correctness. Doors open at 7.30am but expect us around midday Monday because of the distance to travel. Please come along if you can, encourage all the people you know to attend to enjoy all the stands that are outside the security zone of the Conservative Party conference with free admission to Bridgewater Hall to all members of the public. Because CIB is cross-party, we are there to get our hardline message of withdrawal from the EU across to as many people as possible.

Say no to the Lisbon treaty!

Citizens across Europe are protesting against the undemocratic and discredited European Constitution – aka the Lisbon Treaty.

You can join them by signing the Europe-wide petition at:

http://www.petice.eu/#

…and check out the EuropeSaysNo You Tube Channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EuropeSaysNo?feature=autoshare_twitter

The Third Goldsmith Lecture

Our country owes a great deal to Sir James Goldsmith as it is because of his actions we still have the pound and are not saddled with the euro. In his memory the New Britain organization started an annual Goldsmith lecture. The subject is always the same ‑‑The State of our Nation ‑ and the venue is always the same ‑ a Lecture Hall of University College London.

In 2007 the first Goldsmith Lecture was given by The Right Honourable Lord Tebbit CH and by Professor Stephen Bush* of Manchester University. In 2008 the second Goldsmith Lecture was given by Mr Stuart Wheeler and Lord Pearson of Rannoch*. The third Goldsmith Lecture will be given by Mr Simon Heffer, associate Editor of The Daily Telegraph, and Mr Robin Birley, stepson of Sir James Goldsmith. The chair will betaken by Sir Teddy Taylor*. Mr Dennis Delderfield, National Chairman of New Britain and Editor of the City of London & Dockland Times will introduce the Lecture and welcome Lady Annabel Goldsmith who has said she will be present

(* Past or present Campaign for an Independent Britain officers)

THE THIRD GOLDSMITH LECTURE

THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2009

6.45pm for 7pm.

Gavin de Beer Lecture Theatre University College London Gower Street, WC I

Tickets £5 each

To attend this event please contact New Britain, 10 College East, Gunthorpe Street, London E I 7RL (020 7247 2524)

Public meeting - free admission

Saturday 4th April 2009, 2.30-5.00pm
The Friends Meeting House, Large Hall, 173 Euston Road,
London NW1 28J (across the road from Euston rail station).
Admission free (Right of admission reserved)

FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY
NOT
EUROPEAN UNION DICTATORSHIP

Speakers include:

Sir TEDDY TAYLOR
“Democracy Dying” – How Parliament & People’s Power have faded away because of the EU

FRANK KEOGHAN (Irish People’s Movement)
“The EU tramples on the democratic will of the
Irish people”

DELE OGUNTIMOJU
Movement for National Reformation (Nigeria) “An
unnatural union failed the nations of Nigeria and will fail in Europe”

BRIAN DENNY
Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution “The right to work”

HENRY NITZSCHE
Independent member of the German Parliament
“Germany and the Lisbon Treaty”

'Free movement of labour' destroying livelihoods

‘Free movement of labour’ is one of the fundamental principles of the European Union. For this reason Britain has an ‘open door’ policy for millions of EU citizens who wish to work here.

We cannot do anything to interfere with the rights of these people to take jobs from Britons because it is EU law that they should be permitted to come here - and EU law overrides UK law.

Unscrupulous employers take advantage of this situation because it offers the chance to have cheap labour. Many large corporations and trade unions accept free migration because they have enthusiastically signed up to the ‘European project’.

Since 2004, over three quarters of a million people have come to Britain from the Continent to work. Gordon Brown’s right-hand man Peter Mandelson says this is fair enough because British people have an equivalent right to work on the Continent. But why should we give up our homes and families to find work abroad?

Gordon Brown promised ‘British jobs for British workers’. He cannot achieve this. No matter what our politicians tell us, the only way to safeguard British jobs for British workers is for the UK to leave the European Union.

Our rights as freeborn Britons cannot be secured unless and until we free Britain from the shackles of the EU. The Campaign for an Independent Britain demands a referendum on membership of the European Union so that we, the people, can decide whether or not we stay in the EU.

EU to blame for French riots

Will Britain be next?

Riots in France are the direct result of EU policy, and the same could happen here – according to the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB), the cross-party Eurosceptic group.

CIB spokesman Andy Smith said:

“Yesterday’s civil unrest in France represented an outpouring of public anger and frustration over President Sarkozy’s inability to protect his own people from the consequences of the financial crisis. French membership of the Eurozone precludes independent action by the country’s government. The Single Currency means there is no flexibility on interest rates and no possibility for France to determine its own response to the recession.

“Here in Britain, where the government is not currently hampered by Eurozone rules, the situation has not yet reached boiling point, but it could soon do so, as more people come to realise that our ability to deal with the worsening economic situation is severely restricted by our EU membership. We may not yet have been dragged into the Eurozone – though the government clearly wants to take us in – but we are already subject to a host of EU regulations that prevent us from doing what is in the national interest. Policies of national preference are explicitly prohibited by EU ‘competition laws’ and the British government has limited scope to determine its own economic policy.

“Already, opposition is growing in Britain to the policy of free migration within the EU – which allows people from Continental Europe to take jobs in the UK, and protestors have taken to the streets calling for ‘British jobs for British workers’. Campaigns against foreign ownership of key British companies and against overseas ‘outsourcing’ of manufacturing and services are gaining ground. It is hardly surprising that in the recent public opinion poll, carried out by ComRes for the CIB, 71% of voters said they wanted a national referendum to decide whether Britain remains in the EU, and 75% said they thought UK politicians don’t do enough to stand up for British interests in Europe.”

Seven out of ten British voters want referendum on EU membership

· European Union seen as out of touch, unfair, and poor value for money

· Eighty three per cent say British law should be paramount

· Majority say UK politicians “don’t do enough to stand up for Britain”

The overwhelming majority of Britons want a referendum on whether the UK stays in the European Union.

A new poll by ComRes, commissioned by the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB), shows support for the EU at rock-bottom.

Most voters are deeply unhappy about the way the European Union is run, and believe it is out of touch, unfair, and offers poor value for money.

The poll is a devastating blow to those in the Government who want to deepen the UK’s involvement in the EU by taking Britain into the euro zone.

But it is also bad news for the Conservatives as it shows the electorate have moved beyond Tory policy on Europe and are far more Eurosceptic than the present Tory leadership.

With half of voters saying Europe is “largely corrupt”, 71% of those polled say they want a national referendum to decide whether Britain remains in the EU.

Seventy five per cent think UK politicians “don’t do enough to stand up for British interests in Europe”. The same proportion views the EU as “out of touch”.

Sixty five per cent feel that the UK “gets an unfair deal in the European Union; we play by the rules but nobody else does”.

Only 29% believe that Britain gets good value for money from its membership of the EU.

Sixty three per cent say that the EU stops Britain from having its own immigration policy, and an overwhelming 83% are opposed to European law overriding UK law.

Commenting on the results, George West, Chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain, said: “The results come as no surprise, proving that the 2.4 billion euros of taxpayers’ money that the EU spent in 2008 alone on promoting itself and its central aim of ‘ever closer union’ was money thrown away. No amount of EU flag waving, singing the EU national anthem ‘Ode to Joy’ or EU brainwashing will ever win over the hearts and minds of British people who were told in 1972 that they were joining nothing more than a trading Common Market.”

The poll results were welcomed by leading Eurosceptic Members of the European Parliament. Nigel Farage, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and MEP for the South East of England, commented: “This poll shows how hopelessly out-of-touch our politicians are with the public. The need for a referendum, on fundamental issues of sovereignty, has never been greater.”

Roger Helmer, Conservative MEP for the East Midlands and Chairman of The Freedom Association, added: “I am delighted at this further confirmation that the British people demand a say on the EU. The EU's frantic attempts to deny citizens a say on the Lisbon Treaty are despicable. Their contempt for the voters is breathtaking.”

-ENDS

Press contact: Andy Smith, Press Officer, Campaign for an Independent Britain, tel: 07737 271676, email: press@eurosceptic.org.uk

Editor’s notes

(1) ComRes interviewed 1,007 GB adults by telephone between January 2 and January 4, 2009. Data were weighted to be representative demographically of all GB adults. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Full poll results and breakdowns are available on request. Contact: Greig Baker, ComRes, 28 Broadway, London SW1H 9JX. Tel 020 7340 9634 Email greig@comres.co.uk Web www.comres.co.uk

(2) The Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB) is a cross-party pressure-group with a nationwide membership and a network of active local groups. CIB publishes a quarterly tabloid newspaper, Free Britain, with news and views on the EU, plus regular newsletters for its activists and a series of eye-catching public information leaflets. Its website, www.eurosceptic.org.uk, is an authoritative source of information on all aspects of Britain’s membership of the European Union. Members of CIB include prominent MPs, Peers and MEPs from across the political spectrum, as well as journalists, teachers, trade unionists, civil rights campaigners, lawyers, business leaders and local councillors. Its joint Presidents are Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Independent Labour) and Sir Richard Body (former Conservative MP).

Daily Express poll

The Daily Express is running an online poll on EU membership. To date, the percentage of Express readers saying they want Britain to get out of the EU is… 94%!

Polls are still open, so if you haven’t already voted let’s keep those votes for withdrawal flowing into the Express. Vote ‘Yes’ to getting out! The Express needs as many votes as possible to make the poll credible.

Go to http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/50229/VOTE-Should-Britain-leave-the-EU-

Expense Allowance Abuse by MEPs

Superb German video showing MEP cheating on their daily allowances! The film crew were eventually removed from the building - illegally!

View the video

CIB welcomes latest poll

Eurosceptic campaigners today welcomed the latest poll showing that an overwhelming majority of British citizens seek a looser relationship with the European Union. The poll, by Eurosceptic group Global Vision, showed that barely a quarter (27%) of electors want to stay a part of the EU under its current terms. Over 40% wished a relationship with Europe based purely on trade, while 26% wished to leave the EU altogether.

"With Ireland on the brink of rejecting the re-badged EU constitution in its referendum, and with a judical review under way in this country regarding the legality of the government breaking its promise to hold an referendum here, it is clear that the headlong drive towards the creation of a European superstate has neither support nor democratic legitimacy," said Campaign for an Independent Britain spokesman Andy Smith. "That three quarters of Britons favour a reduction in the powers of the European Union comes as little surprise. However, it has to be added that the chances of the EU giving up any of its powers are remote. Sooner or later, Britain will have to face up to the reality that we would be better off out of the EU." Link to CIB News

A German view...

Germany salutes the Irish "no'!

EU bully Ireland after referendum

Views from the Irish Independent on the post-referendum environment.

Welcome to the new Campaign for an Independent Britain Blog site!