Why There Might Be A Brexit Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the United Kingdom will vote on whether to stay within the European Union (EU), the possible leave being called "Brexit".  Among the arguments for leaving is that the Union's commissioners, an un-elected body of bureaucrats, have legislative power over the ordinary affairs of the people of the member states, without any accountability thereto.  As Jonah Goldberg, who finds some parallels here in the United States, points out in National Review:

The European Union’s bureaucracy and paper-parliament were set up to be as insulated as possible from the concerns of actual voters. Representatives to the European Parliament are selected by party elites as a kind of highbrow patronage. They invariably defer to the permanent bureaucracy, which acts like a transnational cartel, one that happens to be composed of governments. As Daniel Hannan, the rare Euroskeptic skunk to infiltrate the garden party that is the EU parliament, put it, “faced with a choice between democracy and supra-nationalism, the EU will always choose supra-nationalism.”

The rules flowing out of Brussels are in no way the source of all of Britain’s economic and social challenges, but when diktats come down about everything from the proper curvature of bananas to age requirements for the usage of balloons, you can understand why some Brits might be tempted to have their own version of a Boston Tea Party.

Imagine if NAFTA had set up a bureaucracy under which unelected officials had the power to control the lives and economic affairs of ordinary Americans, Canadians and Mexicans, and determine such things as the immigration and trade policies of the United States, Canada and Mexico.  Imagine if gradually more and more powers currently belonging to each national legislature were transferred to these NAFTA bureaucrats.  Now imagine if the citizens of the three countries had no recourse when the commissioners enacted something unpopular.  If you can imagine all of that, you know what the British and other Europeans are dealing with.

The unelected commissioners aren't the only people who have powers that would normally reside in a national government.  As reported in Breitbart London, the EU includes the European Court of Human Rights, which has the power to rule on deportations.  Recently, this has aroused the consternation of none other than the Queen.  From BL:

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II thinks European courts that protect Islamist hate preachers “denigrate” Britain and has demanded her dinner guests “Give me THREE good reasons” to remain inside the European Union (EU).

The loaded challenge has been widely interpreted as an expression of Euroscepticism since the Royal biographer Robert Lacey made the revelation in a blog post in the Daily Beast.

The EU and the European Court of Human Rights are known for their history of protecting the “rights” of extremists and blocking deportations.

The British monarch is normally expected to stay out of politics, but this hasn't prevented Her Majesty from having her own opinions.  When you're the head of state of a country about to make a very important decision, it's only right that you want to know the implications.

Being the bloody Yank that I am, I have no say in this matter, but if the same sort of thing were going on here on my side of the pond, I'd probably be leading the Amerexit campaign.  But for now, that's only a hypothetical.  Read the full stories at the above links, and if you're a U.K. citizen, choose carefully.