'As undemocratic as North Korea': What Nick Clegg REALLY thinks about the EU
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-think-EU.html
'As undemocratic as North Korea': What Nick Clegg used to think of the EU as he condemned 'grubby deals' thrashed out in Brussels
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daily Mail
Nick Clegg was last night accused of hypocrisy for blocking moves to claw back powers from the EU – while secretly agreeing that Brussels is as ‘undemocratic as North Korea’. Mr Clegg once railed against the excessive power of the EU and condemned the ‘grubby political deals’ cut in the ‘corridors and bars’ of Brussels. And he described the European Council – the EU’s strategic body – as ‘one of only three legislatures in the world in which laws are adopted behind closed doors. The others are to be found in Havana [Cuba] and Pyongyang [North Korea]’.
The revelation came as Foreign Secretary William Hague blamed Mr Clegg’s party for stalling efforts to reform ties with Brussels and said Britain ‘may get ahead’ by operating at an increasing distance from the EU. Now The Mail on Sunday has unearthed a pamphlet written by the Liberal Democrat leader in which he admits the many failings of the EU. The paper, Doing Less To Do More: A New Focus For The EU, was written a decade ago for the Centre for European Reform, an obscure think-tank, and received only a restricted circulation. Mr Clegg, who was an MEP at the time, wrote: ‘The accumulated burden of policies, competences, tasks and budgets in the European Union has become too great . . . the time has therefore come to identify those areas in which the EU action is neither logical, justifiable nor workable.’
He added that giving ‘unjustified powers’ to Brussels was a threat to ‘democratic legitimacy’. And he condemned the Council’s manner of operations, saying: ‘Legislatures around the world manage to legislate in public on the basis of trade-offs negotiated elsewhere. There is no reason why the EU’s council should be unable to do the same.’ David Cameron is coming under increasing pressure to hold an ‘in or out’ referendum on Europe, with a group of up to 90 new-intake Tory MPs meeting tomorrow to discuss how to ‘reverse the process of EU integration’. They have been enboldened by the growing economic problems of the eurozone countries, The meeting comes just days after a 100,000-name petition calling for a referendum was delivered to Downing Street –enough to trigger the consideration of a parliamentary debate.
Well he's right!
But as one of the comments said, what a difference having your snout in the trough can make! you know, I bet if we passed a law saying that once out of office a politician cannot go into any other similar insitution aka the EU - we would leave the dreaded thing tommorow. At the end of the day however, if you want out and think that we should make the bulk of our laws in this country by our elected legislature as opposed to a foreign one which is unelected and meets in secret then you'll have to not vote Lib/Lab/Con and vote for UKIP.
What is even more interesting is that his spokesman hasn't rebuffed these statements.
Thoughts? is Clegg right on this one?
