Letter to the American Ambassador in London

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I wrote a letter to His Excellency Louis B. Susman, the American Ambassador to Great Britain. I had objections to a speech he made about the United Kingdom and his interpretation of the British role in the EU.

 
7 February 2011

Mr L B Susman
American Embassy
24 Grosvenor Square
London W1A 1AE

Dear Mr Susman

European Union

I read your speech to the Royal United Services Institution and thank you for your many kind remarks about our support for America and that “America has no better friend or more dependable ally than the United Kingdom.”

But you subsequently said that “The US does not want to see Britain’s role in the EU diminished in any way“. And “But let’s be clear: all key issues must run through Europe.”

This sounds remarkably like Ambassador Joseph Kennedy’s remark at the beginning of WW2 that Britain was finished. He did not reckon with the courage and determination of Winston Churchill and the British people.

If I may I will explain why the British people want to escape from the European Union if only our government would let us. We voted to join a Common Market but officials in Brussels have bit by bit converted that to an all powerful organisation with the acquiescence of our successive governments.

I will start with the constitution. The only body we are allowed to vote for is the European Parliament. The EU made sure that it had no power. I believe in America that your President cannot make laws but asks the Congress to pass them if it thinks fit, therefore laws are formed democratically. In the EU the Parliament cannot make laws but has to ask the European Commission to draft them, which it can choose to do or not. As the European Commission is headed by Manuel Barroso, laws are dictated by one unelected employee. There is a Council of Ministers comprised of members from each country but they are not involved in day to day operations. There are three Presidents – the President of the European Commission, the President of the Council and a revolving six month Presidency held by each country in turn. All have their own agendas to pursue.

EU laws are either Directives or Regulations. The first have to be adopted by each country, but they have no option but to adopt them. The second are aimed directly at citizens with no reference to governments. It has been estimated that these cost our economy £300bn a year to comply with. These directives have included the maximum curve allowed in cucumbers and bananas. Luckily these were discarded There have been proposals that eggs and suchlike should be sold by weight and not by number – I think we have beaten that idea but if it had been passed we would have been obliged to follow it. I believe it is still the case that fruit must exceed a minimum size. Anything smaller must be destroyed – it cannot be sold off cheaply.

We have won the right to sell food using Imperial measure rather than Metric, after some market traders were prosecuted by our over zealous inspectors. But we still have to offer to sell in Metric. That is no problem for supermarkets who can afford to buy appropriate equipment. But market traders are now being prosecuted because they cannot offer the alternative. The Common Fisheries Policy forced us to open our fishing grounds to all 27 countries in the EU with the consequence that fish stocks almost disappeared. The controls put in place mean that fishermen are given quotas for the amount of fish they can catch. It is impossible for fishermen to know what is in the nets before they are hauled in so if, for example, there are cod which exceed their quota they must be thrown back dead. It is estimated that half of all catches are thrown back – and this is called conservation.

I have listed these things to show you what a ludicrous organisation the EU is. It is populated by a group of inexperienced nobodies who have too much time on their hands. There is no commonsense in their decisions.

On a broader note the EU is desperately trying to form a federal state. The only thing stopping it is full fiscal union. It has already started on that route by attempting to raise income by direct taxation on citizens rather than from contributions by governments. The EU is basically controlled by Germany allied with France. Both of them are constantly trying to destroy the City of London as a finance centre which is more successful than either of them. They have recently set up three regulators for various sectors of the finance industries – their first target will be London. The Lisbon Treaty removed our veto and replaced it with Qualified Majority Vote. This resulted in us being forced to accept a liability of £8bn to support the Euro to which we do not belong – the vote was carried by the 16 Euro members against the 11 other countries – what other result could be expected. The EU is a corrupt organisation which cannot be trusted – they do not know the meaning of honour. Margaret Thatcher negotiated an annual rebate to compensate us for the inordinate amount of money which France receives in subsidies for its farmers. Tony Blair agreed to reduce this rebate in exchange for an overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy. When the time came for it to honour that agreement it refused to do so as it was “not the right time”. The EU accounts have not been signed off by its auditors for at least ten years because of poor accounting. The EU wanted to increase its annual budget by 6% despite the financial crisis – this was reduced to 2.9% so it proposed an additional “contingency fund” of 3%. The Irish people, in a referendum, refused to accept the Lisbon Treaty, which had to be approved by all 27 members. The EU bribed Ireland into approving it. The EU does not allow any criticism of it or its officers. One British MEP was fined for criticising the leader of the parliament. Past employees, including our deputy prime minister NIck Clegg, cannot criticise it for fear of losing all or part of their pension. It is a condition of EU treaties that every country is obliged to support whatever the EU wishes to do.

In short the EU is run by one man – Manuel Barroso the President of the European Commission.

The question of human rights is a disaster. We signed up to the European Court of Human Rights. We are not allowed to leave it because our membership of the EU prevents it. Consequently we have been prevented from deporting a convicted criminal who left a young girl dying after he had run her over – his claim was that his human rights would be affected as he had a wife in this country (from whom he was separated). We are also prevented from deporting known terrorists because they might suffer in their homeland. Our security advisor to the government, Lord Carlile, has said that Britain has now become a safe haven for terrorists – and we can do nothing about it as long as we are in the EU.

With regard to foreign affairs the EU, as you will know, has set up its own diplomatic corps. We do not accept its validity. We do not want our foreign relations to be soured by a corrupt organisation. It has already tried for membership of the UN but was refused. It will try again until it wins, possibly by bribing other members.This will open the door to many other organisations around the world. The United Nations was set as an association of nations, not organisations. The EU has already managed to join the UN’s 5+1 negotiations with Iran even though it is not a UN member – I do not know why that was allowed to happen. If it does become a member of the UN its next goal will be to take the place of Britain or France in the Security Council. Make no mistake – that will be inevitable. The EU has no experience of diplomacy – I do not know where it found its ambassadors. The only countries in the EU who have considerable experience are Britain, France and Germany. The rest are non-entities. The EU cannot speak for all 27 countries. Mr Cameron has already criticised Lady Ashton for watering down her statement on Egypt after pressure from Mr van Rompuy. She has had no experience of foreign affairs and has been followed by criticism in whatever post she has occupied. I quote “Never elected by anyone, anywhere, totally unqualified for almost every job she has done, she has risen to her current position presumably through a combination of down-the-line Stalinist political correctness and the fact that she has the charisma of a caravan site on the Isle of Sheppey.” She was appointed to her present post as a result of the usual infighting in the EU among its members – in this case Gordon Brown withdrew his support for Tony Blair’s bid for the presidency. As I said before, the EU is a corrupt organisation.
 
Immigration is a problem in Britain. We can refuse entry to countries outside the EU but we are obliged to allow in unlimited numbers of EU residents. The EU is presently engaged in negotiations with India for a trade deal in exchange for which it will allow unlimited numbers of Indians to enter the EU. As English is India’s official language they will inevitably come to Britain. And if Turkey joins there could potentially be 80 million Muslim immigrants. It is rather like the whole of Mexico being granted unlimited access to Florida.

All this is why the British want to be out of the EU. To put you in context, if you were in a Pan American Union would you like every aspect of your lives to be controlled and governed by a bunch of amateurs in Lima? An American commenting in the Telegraph says that many Americans are nervous about a proposed North American Union.

I would suggest that your government should be very careful in its dealings with the EU. Britain has, I think, more worldwide respect than any other European country. If we are left out of the equation then America will lose it’s only reliable ally. This has been shown by the EU’s complete lack of support in Iraq and Afghanistan, when it refused to allow its troops to go into dangerous situations. It is to be noted that Canada was with us in the dangerous south and lost many men.

Sorry to have been so long but I wished you to know the true facts about the EU. Some of my assertions may be inaccurate but the EU has produced hundreds of thousands of documents, many of which are indecipherable. I believe the American expression for our predicament is hog-tied. The EU is not to be trusted. We need America’s support to escape from it.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Daniel Bratchell
 

Editors Note – A WSJ article of the same ilk. A European’s Warning to America.

 

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12 years ago

The vast majority of Brits want to leave the EU.

Ted ‘Grocer’ Heath conned us in the 70’s into a ‘common market’.

You’re wrong about Maggie, Holte. She may have been part of the Heath government but she later realised the error – credit where it’s due (and I HATE giving any politician credit…even Maggie)

If a National Referendum was held today – or last year or next year come to that – we would leave the EU.

It’ll never happen…it’s too much like democracy…and democratic governments don’t like too much democracy…

Cheers and welcome to MMA Daniel….careful how you go old bean…it’s a minefield in here – but a nice one in a way…-)

4D

Daniel Bratchell
Reply to  Four Dinners
12 years ago

I enjoy an argument unless it’s with pontificators who keep changing the subject.

Michael John Scott
Reply to  Daniel Bratchell
12 years ago

I understand that completely Daniel but it goes with the territory. I hope you have the patience to hang in there with us.

lazersedge
12 years ago

Welcome Daniel. Like Mike I don’t enough about the problem to comment. I will say that right now Canada and Mexico are a bit worried about getting into any sort of union with us in America. We are really acting like the bunch children that we are.

Daniel Bratchell
Reply to  lazersedge
12 years ago

Nothing changes. When I lived in Toronto in the late fifties, Canada was wary of being encompassed by America – to the extent that there were special tax reliefs for Canadians who invested in Canadian companies rather than American.

Michael John Scott
12 years ago

Welcome Daniel to MMA and thanks for your post. I don’t know enough about what is happening in the UK and even less about the EU so I will reserve comment 🙂

Daniel Bratchell
Reply to  Michael John Scott
12 years ago

A brief note about EU politics. The system in the EU Parliament is that parties should form alliances with like minded parties and speak with one voice. There is no bar to somebody standing alone but they become voices in the wilderness.

The EU is also encouraging Pan European Parties whose sole aim must be to promote “integration” ie federalisation, which is the EU’s overriding aim. In order to accomplish this it pays bribes of at least one million euros per annum to each party for running costs. So it is using public money to achieve its own ends.

Hrothgir OD
12 years ago

I really find the whole ‘special relationship’ bollockry really rather irritating.

It only ever existed due to the iniquitous conditions of Leased Lend.

Daniel Bratchell
Reply to  Hrothgir OD
12 years ago

I believe the “special relationship” is useful to the USA. How often is it that Britain is the first country to be asked by America to participate in ventures such as Iraq and Afghanistan? I think the only time we refused was over Vietnam.

Although we no longer have the military power, Britain has long been a respected voice in the world and it is useful for America to have it on board. Through the Commonwealth Britain has contacts with 54 nations, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand who each have put more effort into Afghanistan than our European “allies”.

12 years ago

. . . If I may I will explain why the British people want to escape from the European Union . . .

I’m curious when you say ‘the British people’ is this every British voter? Are there any people in the country who like being part of the EU? Or, are we talking about the whole population, or is it just successive governments who want to participate in EU membership?

Daniel Bratchell
Reply to  Holte Ender
12 years ago

As far as I know there has never been a poll about our membership of the EU. I take my opinion from the fact that, on comments pages like this in our leading newspaper the Daily Telegraph, at least 95% of commentators want to leave the EU.

Unfortunately the bulk of the electorate go from election to election without thinking much about politics. They do not realise how much of our lives are now controlled by the EU. Our current Foreign Secretary, William Jefferson Hague, when he was leader of the Conservative Party in 2001 lost an election by concentrating too much on the EU.

The only political party whose aim is to leave the EU is the United Kingdom Independence Party. But its supporters are so widespread that it cannot garner enough votes to gain a seat in Parliament. But there are signs that that may be changing.

Reply to  Daniel Bratchell
12 years ago

I lived in the UK until the mid 1980s so I remember well the pro and con arguments about entry into the ‘Common Market’ as it used to be called. I recall conservatives being the most vocal against entry, but ironically, Ted (grocer) Heath and Margaret Thatcher led us in.

Welcome to MMA Daniel, I sincerely hope you will become a regular contributor.

David Hinder
Reply to  Holte Ender
12 years ago

There may well be UK citizens who wish to stay in the EU –

But I have never met any of them.

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