I’m surprised we have the front to call this a debate, because the minister didn’t tell us any of the substance of the negotiations. But of course there is no debate is there? No debates in the national parliaments. No informed opinion in the press. No debate at all. And why? Because this whole treaty is being put together in secret. And that is being done because you don’t want to involve the citizens of Europe; you’re fearful that the more they found out about your grandiose plans, the more likely they are to vote NO. And what’s worse still is the downright dishonesty with which this whole process is being pursued. Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party, lone address to European Parliament
You have the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. And the question that I want to ask, that we’re all going to ask, is Who are you? I’d never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you. I would like to ask you, President, who voted for you, and what mechanism … oh, I know democracy’s not popular with you lot, and what mechanism do the people of Europe have to remove you? Is this European democracy? Nigel Farage, re Herman van Rompuy
I realised that this was part of a bigger project: a project that the British political elite were engaged in along with the elites from the other European countries – and that was to take something that we’d been told was common market – the European Economic Community – but actually, surreptitiously, without ever telling the truth or giving anyone a say, to turn that into a political union ... We have a political class across the world that are basically aiming for a form of global governance. Nigel Farage, interview Alex Jones December 2009
You should all be held accountable for what you’ve done. You should all be fired. Nigel Farage
The structures are not democratic … We’re back to rotten boroughs really. Jacob Rees-Mogg, debate Oxford Union, Youtube 13.09
Europe: Never Have So Few Decided So Much For So Many. Sun headline
It is not a movement of parties but a movement of people. Europe can only be united by the heartfelt wish and vehement expression of the great majority of all the people in all the parties in all the freedom-loving countries no matter where they dwell or how they vote. Winston Churchill
In particular we have confirmed the irreversibility of the process towards economic and monetary union. Pierre Verner, Luxembourg prime minister, 1970
Pope declares the EU is heaven sent: the Roman Catholic Church has set the founding fathers of the European Community on the road to Sainthood. Daily Telegraph 3rd December 1999
Tony Blair proposed a huge increase in the powers of the European Union's key institutions yesterday in an effort to soothe allies and regain the initiative in the Convention on the Future of Europe. The Telegraph online article Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 1st March 2003
It is a good treaty for Britain and the new Europe. We will put it to the British people in a referendum and campaign whole-heartedly for a Yes vote to keep Britain a leading nation in Europe. Labour Party manifesto 2005
It is our destiny to lead in Europe. And Europe needs us. For we have a vision of Europe – we want a people’s Europe. Tony Blair
Treachery ... Traitor Tony Blair is to let Britain be run by ten UNELECTED bodies in his EU surrender. The Sun article Keith Gladdis
Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly ... All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way ... What was difficult to understand will become utterly incomprehensible, but the substance has been retained. Valery Giscard d’Estaing
Last November, for the thirteenth year in a row, the EU’s auditors refused to sign off its financial accounts citing errors of legality and presumed attempts at fraud. Then, only two weeks ago EU politicians were openly accused of fraud and embezzlement on a massive scale and an official investigation was launched that could potentially lead to the imprisonment of a number of MEPs. Corruption, fraud and an overall lack of accountability are becoming increasingly rife amongst the European Union’s political elite and it is clearly time that ordinary citizens are given a direct say in the way that the EU is developing. Simply giving people one vote every four or five years – to elect their political representatives – is not nearly enough in any political system that still professes to be a democracy. Paul Anthony Taylor, external relations director of Dr Rath Health Foundation & campaign coordinator
Democracy and social justice are widely regarded as prerequisites to any civilised society. Yet, the nearly 500 million citizens of Europe are increasingly at the mercy of unelected European Commission officials, who have themselves been subject to several corruption charges, as well as to the power of big corporate lobbyists. The European Parliament stands as the one token to democracy but its legislative powers are weak and it has not surprisingly been characterised by some as a powerless talking shop. The Lisbon Treaty is the EU’s next attempt at constitutional reforms following the outright rejection of the constitution during referenda in Holland and France in 2005. To exclude any European citizen from a right to vote this time around would be to deny European citizens one of our most fundamental rights. Dr Robert Verkerk, Alliance for Natural Health executive director
It can be said without a doubt that the overhaul of health legislation undertaken by the European Commission and Parliament in recent years has disregarded the preference of citizens for the use of nutrients and herbs for purposes of prevention and healing. Recent directives revising the laws of medicines and introducing new rules for food supplements and herbs turned out to be strongly in favour of pharmaceutical control. As a result, many natural remedies and nutritional supplements available today may risk becoming illegal. Consumers would face additional dangers if those products were to be pushed into a black market economy. Certainly a European-level referendum or similar consultation of public sentiment would tend to balance the power of lobbies with the wishes and ideas of the people. Sepp Hasslberger, La Leva Di Archimede
The European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority and other European institutions remain strongly in favour of genetically modified foods, despite the fact that a large majority of the European population has already rejected them. Giving citizens the right to vote in referendums whenever significant changes are made to laws affecting them would therefore help to ensure the creation of a Europe for the people, by the people, and put in place an important check on the balance of power. When political policy decisions are persistently made against the will of the people, as is now the case in Brussels, what you have is not democracy but a dictatorship. Lutz Kliche, President of Alliance for Health, Peace & Social Justice
The European Commission already increasingly resembles the old Soviet Politburo in both its structure and its proceedings. Ensuring that citizens of the EU have the right to vote in referendums would therefore help to ensure that the Commission does not become the new Politburo for Europe. Scott Tips, National Health Federation president
The European Union is imposing a one-size-fits-all set of regulations on its 27 member states which will be prohibitive for natural health therapies as well as the organic food supplement/vitamin industry. The EU is not so much about free trade as it is about absolute control. The British Parliament is shortly expected to ratify the Lisbon Treaty and the Queen will give the Royal Assent. In January 2009 all the 111,000 EU laws will come into effect and we will be living in a massive Police State. Louise McLean, editor Zeus Information Service
Mr Chairman, the President of the Commission Mr Delores said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive. And he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No! No! No! Margaret Thatcher, House of Commons
The tragedy is the prime minister’s perceived attitude towards Europe is running serious risks for the future of our nation. Geoffrey Howe, former Chancellor, resignation address House of Commons
Europa: Mythology: Zeus king of the gods ... He fell in love with her; he transformed himself into the form of a magnificent white bull ... Zeus took Europa to the Mediterranean island of Crete ... Europa before the first queen of Crete: The Abduction of Europe. Henrik Palmgren, lecture Bath February 2010, ‘The Hidden Roots of the European Union’
Europa came from the ‘ancient world’: she was a princess from Canaan/Phoenicia (today Tyre in Lebanon) ibid.
The apples of enlightenment comes up in Norse mythology. ibid.
Protestant minister Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons (1853) claims that Semiramis was an actual person in ancient Mesopotamia who invented polytheism and with it goddess worship. ibid.
Europe a goddess representing the lunar cow on a symbolic level her name could be construed as the Intelligent or Open-Minded one (wide eyes or broad-seeing) ibid.
Sometimes it’s the moon, sometimes it’s the sun ... She’s the woman of the Apocalypse: see Revelations. ibid.
Europa is Eve: she ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; she got enlightened (enlightenment) light bringer – Venus – Lucifer. ibid.