But this past year of trade talks and upsets and fallouts has also illustrated where the real threat to democracy comes from. It comes from within the UK itself. Yes, the European Union is a menace to democracy in Europe. It exists precisely to insulate national elites from public pressure, to create a space in which laws, regulations and priorities can be made far from the madding crowds of voters and citizens. Its inherent anti-democracy can be seen in its day-to-day running, in which an unaccountable commission makes law and a sham parliament rubber-stamps it, and in its authoritarian fury in response to any European people that dares to vote against it. The Irish, the French, the Dutch, the Greeks — all have seen their democratic votes against EU constitutions, treaties or austerity packages ignored, written off as if they were the insignificant ramblings of an uneducated throng.
And this past year, too, as in the preceding three years, we’ve seen the European Union’s hostility to democracy on full display in its dealings with UK governments. From seeking to keep parts of the UK beholden to Single Market regulations to undermining British sovereignty over British waters, from Donald Tusk’s claim that there is a ‘special place in hell’ for Brexiteers who lack a coherent plan to Guy Verhofstadt’s description of Leavers as the ‘real traitors’, the EU oligarchy has shown nothing but contempt for British democracy and has actively sought to constrain and obstruct it. I often hear from Remain voters who say their minds have been utterly changed by the behaviour of the EU over the past four-and-a-half years, and who say that if they could go back to 2016 they would vote Leave.
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