The C.I.B. is a cross party organisation dedicated to getting the UK out of the EU. Scroll down to see patrons.
A SPEECH FOR GREECE
at the International Conference of the United People’s Front (EPAM)
30 November and 1 December 2013 in Athens
by
JIM REYNOLDS
Vice Chairman, Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB)
Dear Friends,
My name is Jim Reynolds and I am a Vice Chairman representing the Campaign for an Independent Britain. On behalf of our organisation, I come to Greece in full hearted friendship for the Greek people and for our colleagues from all over Europe, who are fighting for the return of democratic self government to their countries and deliverance from their debt slavery , enforced by that imperial project, the Euro currency. We in the Campaign for an Independent Britain are from all parties and none. We come from right, left and centre and all we want is our country back!
Our organisation was formed in 1969 under a different name as a cross-party coalition, opposed to “Common Market” entry in 1973. It is an umbrella group, supported by public donations, to which other Eurosceptic organisations are affiliated. We campaign for the restoration of full national sovereignty to the United Kingdom by its withdrawal from the obligations of the treaties of the European Union and the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 (as amended), so that Parliament may legislate freely and may co-operate with other nations as it sees fit. We are a “broad church” of political opinion but will not tolerate racists or extremists and reject any organisation known to be motivated by anti-democratic intentions.
Our country has been betrayed by certain Prime Ministers. Edward Heath in 1972 took us into what was then called a Common Market – on a narrow vote in Parliament of 309 to 301, whilst concealing from all MPs the terms of entry. Harold Wilson in 1975 claimed he had secured new terms of membership and, aided by a lavishly funded campaign, the full support of the BBC and almost all British newspapers, he secured a 67% vote by 65% of the electorate to stay in.
In 1983, the men who later became our Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, gained their seats in Parliament for the first time by promising, if elected, to take us out of the European Union – but changed their minds when elected.
Over many years we have printed and distributed millions of factual leaflets on many subjects and organised public gatherings and films. We have a website www.freebritain.org.uk . In 2010, after our most recent general election to Parliament, we supplied every member of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords with a booklet entitled “ A HOUSE DIVIDED: Can parliament serve Two Masters, the Nation and the European Union?”. I have brought a number of copies with me to make them available to you. It tells of the lies and deceits perpetrated in order to maintain public support for the EU – and of the loss of our Parliamentary sovereignty.
Turning now to those countries of Europe which, with us have joined the EU -Something very strange has happened to the countries of Europe over the last fifty years through the deceit of our politicians – the leaders who should be serving the interests of their own peoples who elect them. By meeting together with politicians from other countries in the EU they have increasingly discovered that, as a class, they have more in common with each other and with the bankers than they do with the people they are supposed to serve. Little by little they have created a super – state structure to which they have given their loyalty and obedience which should only be to their own countries and peoples.
In any other age this would have been called treason and would have been punished as such. They are people who dress like us, look like us and talk like us but whose loyalty is elsewhere – to that strange anti-democratic structure in Brussels. What was presented to us as a free association of sovereign nations co-operating in trade always was intended to develop into a super-state, a single despotism over all the peoples of Europe.
Britain was slowly enmeshed in this plot against its own people by its political class – but not without a struggle. As a country, we had spent all of our money and much of our blood to free the countries of Europe from fascism and the natural goodwill of democrats towards their fellows in other European countries was gradually subverted to this evil project.
One man who saw this clearly in the Forties was the Labour Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin.
A man of the working class, he was intensely suspicious of the early moves towards European integration. He knew enough of Greek mythology to coin a keenly true but amusing mixed metaphor. He said of the European project.
“If you open that Pandora’s box, you don’t know how many Trojan horses will come flying out”.
Unfortunately for us and for Europe, Ernest Bevin was overruled by American pressure. Britain was bankrupt and the Americans controlled the flow of dollars. In fact, we have evidence that the CIA funded the European Movement from the beginning, just as the American government today puts diplomatic pressure on our country, telling us that we must stay in the EU.
Well, whilst the Trojan Horse was originally a Greek stratagem against the Trojans, there are now whole herds of them from Brussels within the walls of Greece today – and in every EU country. Wherever you see that ring of stars announcing another project assisted by the EU, a little bit of your country has been shaped to suit the policy makers of Brussels. Around all these projects – and the ones you don’t see or hear of – are the people who do well out of them. Some of them are gradually entrapped bit by bit, often unwittingly at the time, into giving their first loyalty to their Brussels paymasters.
The Commissioners in Brussels and the heads of government of other EU countries are far away and, whilst we can rage about what they do, there is little we can do to affect them. They are hermetically sealed in a world of privilege beyond our reach. It was our own, treacherous politicians who delivered us into the hands of these people. In doing it they became more like them, as prophetically described by the poet G.K. Chesterton eighty years ago.
“They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes.
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies”.
Brussels has not taken any power from our countries which has not been handed over by our own politicians and officials. Sometimes in the mistaken belief that it was somehow for the peace and good of Europe – we have let them do it. Sometimes we were just too late to stop them. Now is the time to insist that they take back the power – our power to rule ourselves – and bring it home where it belongs – each in our own country.
And if they won’t do it, then throw the rogues out!
By meeting together, co-ordinating our efforts and sharing information, we can each be much more effective in in our own countries where the real fight is.
I mentioned Ernest Bevin, the socialist politician of the Nineteen Forties, as one who understood the dangers of the European project. The last British politician to stand against the creation of the EU superstate was very different politically – Margaret Thatcher. The President of the EU Commission, Jacques Delors, had proposed more or less what we have now – The EU Commission as the executive government of the EU, the so-called EU parliament as its token democratic assembly and the European Council of heads of government as its senate.
To each of these proposals in turn, Mrs Thatcher said “No!” “No!” “No!” and so was betrayed by the europhiles in her own party whose loyalty was to the EU and not to the most solemn oath they had sworn to their own sovereign and country. That is the rottenness at the heart of every EU member state, not just Britain.
If we had been meeting just over a month ago on October 28th , we could have joined with our Greek friends in celebrating “No!” day, the anniversary of Greece’s short response to the ultimatum by the Italian dictator Mussolini. The admiration which Britain then felt for Greece standing up to a much bigger country is reflected today in our support for your campaign to restore your country’s honour and self government. It is a common struggle which we share, so I share the sentiment of Lord Byron
“The mountains look on Marathon –
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece still might be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave”
Patrons
PEERS OF THE REALM Lord Stoddart of Swindon Lady Vallat Lord Clifford of Chudleigh Lord Willoughby de Broke Lord Stevens of Ludgate Lord Grantley Lord Walsingham Lord Lamont Earl of Wemyss and March Hon Mrs Buchan of Auchmacoy Lord Kalms
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS Kate Hoey MP Sammy Wilson MP Sir Richard Shepherd MP Philip Davies MP Philip Hollobone MP Andrew Rosindell MP Heather Wheeler MP Douglas Carswell MP
BUSINESSMEN and WOMEN Stuart Wheeler Sir Richard Storey Bt
ECONOMISTS Ruth Lea
INTELLECTUALS Rev’d Dr Peter Mullen Christopher Gill