UK level playing field to be unlevelled by plough of EU and Juncker’s troops

With two competing pro-withdrawal groups, leave.eu and vote.leave launching their campaigns in the last fortnight, it is easy to feel that the withdrawal movement, for all its fragmentation is building up a head of steam.

In reality, however, our opponents intend to do all they can to ensure we vote to stay within the EU. Two articles have been brought to our attention which illustrate the contempt which some members of our own government have for democracy and that the powers that be will ensure that the forthcoming referendum will be anything but a level playing field.

Firstly, the European Commission has admitted to a UKIP MEP that it has set up a task force with an initial staffing of nine officials to “coordinate” its activities for Britain’s remain/leave referendum. And it says the Eurocrats will oversee “information activities” in the run-up to the vote.

The revelations will heighten concerns that Brussels intends to launch an all-out propaganda offensive, financed by taxpayers’ money, in order to persuade the British public to stay in the EU.

Commission President Jean Claude Juncker told Eastern Region MEP Patrick O’Flynn in a written parliamentary answer: “The Commission has decided to create a Task Force for Strategic Issues related to the United Kingdom referendum. It will coordinate the Commission’s work on all strategic issues related to the UK ahead of the referendum. In a later phase it will oversee the Commission’s input into information activities in the run-up to the UK referendum. In addition to its Head, the Task Force will consist initially of six administrators and two assistants.”

Mr O’Flynn said: “I am grateful to President Juncker for being reasonably open about the Commisssion preparing to launch a propaganda offensive designed to keep Britain in the EU. The British public will no doubt already be familiar with what the Commission considers ‘information activities’. If Mr Juncker has in mind something similar to the material that is circulated to schools then I think propaganda would be a more accurate label.”

“While this unit is relatively modestly staffed by Brussels standards, I note that Mr Juncker says that nine is merely its ‘initial’ size and I will be looking closely to see if it is expanded and by how much in the months ahead. In my view the referendum should be a matter for the British people alone and European Union institutions would be well advised to keep out. However, if this attempt to skew the referendum battleground were to prove counter-productive it would come as no surprise. British voters do not like anything that smacks of interference with fair play.”

Meanwhile another UKIP MEP, Gerard Batten, has highlighted how our own government is acting hand-in-glove with the EU institutions to undermine national democracy.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference, Karen Bradley, the Home Office Minister boasted, “When I’ve sat down with my counterparts and ministers from European countries and talked about passenger name records it’s quite clear that at goverrment level in all these countries they also want passenger name records but they cannot get them through their national parliaments, so they say to us – please help us get it through at European level. One of our MEPs, Timothy Kirkhope, is pushing passenger name records through the European Parliament as we speak.”

Mr Batten responded. “It’s the transparent contempt for Parliamentary democracy that shines through. Now we have a Government Minister boasting how Conservative MEPs are doing other Governments’ bidding. It also shows why the establishment elite so love the EU. They can ignore the public and do whatever they want.”

A vote to leave the EU would therefore be final and impossible to contest, for it will have been achieved against overwhelming odds – not only against the ample resources of the European establishment but also against some unscrupulous and unsavoury members of our own political class.

With thanks to the UKIP head office and Gerard Batten MEP for permission to reproduce their articles. The originals may be viewed at http://www.ukip.org/juncker_admits_to_eu_referendum_taskforce and http://www.ukip.org/government_admits_it_uses_the_eu_to_subvert_democracy