Bill Cash wrote in The Spectator: “We need to repatriate our democracy and govern ourselves. It is therefore essential that the Prime Minister introduces a Bill so that a Referendum vote can take place before the General Election, followed by a fundamental renegotiation of the existing European Treaties, in line with the democratic wishes of the British people as expressed through that referendum. It is about democracy – what is required is the repatriation of the ability of the British people to govern themselves through their vote in General Elections, with their laws and in their Parliament. They cannot currently do this as the European Treaties prevent them from doing so.We want European trade and political cooperation in the EU but not European government.
“Apart from the fundamental question of repatriating our democracy, those areas requiring repatriation include: social and employment laws; immigration; policing and criminal justice; energy; defence and importantly, for the sake of UK trade, financial services and small businesses, renegotiating our place in the Single Market because UK growth from the EU is now impossible. In 2011, the UK trade loss with the EU-26 was -£46bn. It has shot up in one year to an astonishing -£70bn in 2012.
“As for financial services, Qualified Majority Vote and measures such as the Financial Transaction Tax will destroy the City of London, adding £4 billion to the cost of issuing UK debt. EU growth is zero. Our businesses are overburdened from EU Laws – EU red tape costs us about 4% of the EU’s GDP. Actual costs of EU regulation on British business amount to £7.4bn, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
“We need to repatriate the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which absorbs around 40% of the EU budget; the Common Fisheries Policy which has created awful waste through the discarding of fish and the Regional Development Policy. It is long overdue.”
