European Constitutions
With the connivance of the "Liberal" "Democrats" it looks likely that Britain will ratify the Lisbon treaty soon. The recent collapse of the Italian government, however, together with Belgium's ongoing political crisis raises the question: do the polities of Continental Europe really deserve to have any influence at all over the constitutional affairs of the United Kingdom?
In answering this question it is instructive to consider the constitutional pedigree of our European neighbours. In no particular order, here is a list of the dozen other EU member states with populations of over 10 million people, together with the form of their government, the date at which their constitution was adopted and the form of government which they enjoyed previously:
Italy - republic with constitution dating from 1948. Formerly a dictatorship.
France - republic with constitution dating from 1958. Formerly an occupied territory.
Germany - federal republic with constitution dating from 1949. Formerly a dictatorship.
Spain - constitutional monarchy with constitution dating from 1978. Formerly a dictatorship.
Greece - republic with constitution dating from 1975. Formerly a dictatorship.
Belgium - federated constitutional monarchy with constitution dating from 1993 (further changes pending). Formerly an occupied territory.
Holland - constitutional monarchy with constitution dating from 1815 (thoroughly revised in 1983). Formerly a vassal state of France.
Portugal - republic with constitution dating back to 1976. Formerly a dictatorship.
Poland - republic with constitution dating from 1997. Formerly a vassal state of the USSR.
Romania - republic with constitution dating from 1991 (thoroughly revised in 2003). Formerly a vassal state of the USSR.
Czech Republic - republic with constitution dating from 1992. Formerly a vassal state of the USSR.
Hungary - republic with constitution dating from 1949 (thoroughly revised 1989-90). Formerly a vassal state of the USSR.
Not a hugely impressive record, is it? A collection of former dictatorships, occupied territories and puppet states with an average political age of 44 - and that's with being pretty generous to the Netherlands and Hungary.
This is not to be xenophobic, of course: simply Britannophilic. England was a united kingdom as far back as the early 10th century; constitutionally, our common law dates from at least the mid-twelfth century, our written constitution began with Magna Carta in 1215, and our parliamentary democracy dates from later in the 13th century.
And needless to say, there has not been a battle in Britain since 1746, nor a dictatorship since 1660, nor an occupation since 1066.
So while we have an enormous amount to learn from our Continental friends and allies, many of whom are of course old and venerable countries, about all sorts of other things, the idea that they have anything at all to teach us about our constitution is nothing short of lunatic.
Indeed, if the EU were a body which listened rather than dictated, we might have a good deal to teach it. But then, Europe has a fine tradition of dictatorship, doesn't it?
5 comments:
You are confusing European countries with the EU. Yes, many of these countries have had unhappy pasts, some of them are failing to learn from them. But it's not them trying to run us, is it? It's the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels who are trying to run ALL of us.
I mean, apparently the Isle of Man is the oldest continuous democracy in the world, so what? I wouldn't want to be run by them either. Nor would I want the UK to run the Isle of Man.
I only included the constitutions of significant countries - no Luxembourg, no Liechtenstein and certainly no Isle of Man!
I agree about the unelected bureaucrats, unhappy pasts etc, but the fact remains that the constitution / Lisbon treaty was drawn up by European politicians and commissioners (including Brits) sitting round a table under the supervision of the French.
The fault is our own for allowing the British constitution to be supervened by something inferior. My facetious post was designed merely to illustrate that our own arrangements have a rather longer pedigree than those of any of the other participants in the EU arrangement - though as I have noted in the past our socialist party has no trouble mucking up the constitution on its own ...
The Treaty of Maastricht of 1992 created all in the United Kingdom, including The Queen, citizens of the Union. This is the first time that any treaty arrangement has established a citizenship.
The European Reform Treaty, or "Treaty of Lisbon", is an amending Treaty comprising over 90% of the provisions of the aborted Constitution and designed to establish, in a similar manner, a supranational Federal State which, in its new legal form, would require a proper allegiance of its citizens in a way the existing Treaties could never do.
Philip Benwell MBE wrote an essay on this topic. The full text is here:
http://www.monarchist.org.au/articles_2006.htm#THE_QUEEN_AS_A_CITIZEN_OF_EUROPE
Interesting - thank you Mr Royalist. Another reason why the Treaty represents such a gross impertinence.
Of course, giving foreign nationals / a supranational bureaucracy supremacy over the UK began well before Maastricht. Wouldn't it be nice if we could see an end to it all one day?
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