People power is rapidly diminishing

Deerlands Avenue, Parson Cross, Sheffield, S5

In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty cemented the EU's position as a legal State and ourselves as a member, without the UK government giving us a say over our destiny.

Although given a referendum, however, did the EU accept the Irish NO vote? Instead, they offered concessions making the treaty more acceptable and giving the people '˜time to reflect' until the same information could be framed in a more acceptable way and a YES vote secured. In light of Brexit, does it ring a bell?

When David Cameron, in a bid to persuade us to vote to remain, claimed to have secured '˜special status' and exemption from '˜ever closer union' and further immigration, did it have any legality?

Well, Tony Blair achieved this in 2004 only to find it reinstated in the Lisbon Treaty and until treaty change this exemption is both reversible, non-binding and therefore, subject to removal locking us, unwittingly, into the status quo and the burgeoning United States of Europe.

The EU does not give in easily because, according to Lord Lamont (House of Lords), to date there have been 48 referendums and '˜not once has one been re-run when people voted in favour of EU integration'.

Worryingly, member states already having ceded power to the EU, the Lisbon Treaty is now self-amending and without need of consultation, removing all traces of democracy from the people.

In fact, in 2012-2017, the Centre for European Studies conducted empirical studies of a different type of government based on an epistocracy (rule of the knowers) in which voting rights are confined to the most intelligent. What future then for the masses affected by policies designed by the often imperfect, should this be implemented?

Even our MPs are proving impotent and willing to bend the knee, registering a personal YES vote in Parliament against the majority wish of constituents but as Tony Benn once said, '˜It's not for MPs to give away the powers lent to them by the people. They don't belong to them, they belong to the electorate'.

People power rapidly diminishing, do we really need a crystal ball to help us foresee that '˜The EU is the old Soviet Union in Western clothes'? '“ Mikail Gorbachev.