What can make even a staunch Brexiteer regret leaving the EU? One thing only: Britain aligning herself with every law, rule and regulation of the EU, but this time around without any say in how they are adopted.
This seems to be the ploy devised by Keir Starmer whose federalist loins ache for returning Britain to the EU fold. If so, he gets top marks for perfidy and bottom marks for just about everything else.
His latest attempt to shove Westminster closer to Brussels involves cars, which all Marxists hate, even from the back seats of their government limousines.
The other day I suggested that the word socialists detest the most is ‘private’, “as in private healthcare, private income, private pensions, private enterprise”.
A reader of mine pointed out two omissions from that list, private education and private sponsorship of arts, and he is of course right: a heavy socialist hand can only ever produce non-education and non-arts.
Yet another Labour bugbear neither of us thought of at the time is private transportation, which is to say cars. When they first appeared, cars were the prerogative of the affluent few. But Henry Ford and Ferdinand Porsche put paid to that exclusivity by producing affordable cars for mass consumption.
But who said resentment and class hatred can’t outlive their original source? They certainly can, and cars provide a perfect target.
In spite of all the petty regulations attached to their use, private vehicles remain a factor of freedom. A driver can get in, push the starter button and go in any of the available four directions, rather than rely on typically unreliable public transport to follow a fixed route.
Socialists on either side of the Channel would dearly love to ban cars altogether, but that final solution is so far unachievable. Hence they settle for second best: making the drivers’ life as hard, unpleasant and expensive as they can.
I shan’t bore you with a litany of measures governments take to that end. Suffice it to say that driving in European capitals, such as London and Paris, is already more trouble than it’s worth. Yet the new outrage to be perpetrated by Labour will make even rural driving difficult.
A few years ago, most Continental governments mandated that all new cars be fitted with in-built breathalysers, so-called Alcolocks. The device is linked to the ignition system.
After getting into the car, the driver has to blow into the breathalyser for five seconds. If he is under the legal limit, the car will start. If he is over, it won’t.
Many countries mandate Alcolocks to prevent repeat offending by those convicted of DUI. However, in Britain such repeat offenders are few. Between 2013 and 2024, there were only 27,000 of them. That’s a trivial number in a country that has 40 million drivers.
I’m sure these statistics must be similar on the Continent. But socialists don’t just want to punish recidivists. They want to turn most people into law-breakers, the better to lord it over them.
To that effect, many EU countries make Alcolocks mandatory for all new cars. And, faithful to its ploy of having Britain bossed by Brussels, HMG has announced that Britain will follow suit. From now on, a chap sinking a couple of pints with his mates somewhere in rural Cornwall will have to walk home on empty roads he could have driven in perfect safety.
Two inner imperatives of our Marxist government come together to deliver yet another blow to drivers: socialist hatred of private transportation and Starmer’s ploy of turning Britain into an EU vassal, a de facto member, but without membership privileges, such as they are.
Socialist assault on cars is usually justified by a touching concern for ‘our planet’, haunted as it is by the spectre of global warming. This time, however, Starmer has come up with a new excuse, and I never thought he was capable of such ingenuity.
He argues that differences in car manufacturing between Britain and the Continent will lead to higher costs being passed on to the customer. That’s why Lord Hendy, Minister of State for the Department for Transport, stated that the government “takes an explicit presumption in favour of alignment”.
The argument from cost is as mendacious as one from non-existent global warming. Mandatory breathalysers and black-box recorders will add thousands of pounds to the cost of a new vehicle. In France, that sum is about 3,000 euros, to give you an idea.
Be that as it may, Starmer’s government isn’t driven by concerns for the financial health of the 40 million British drivers. Their motivation is erasing enough legal differences between Britain and the EU to make any arguments against re-joining sound churlish.
Hence my title above. Indeed, why not replace the precedent-based English Common Law with the Roman positive law widespread on the Continent? If I hated Britain as much as the socialists do, that would be my first proposal.
While we’re at it, let’s get rid of the monarchy too. After all, most EU countries are republics, and even those few that nominally aren’t have abandoned the notion of anointed kings.
Then again, to be fair, successive governments have done their level best to turn the House of Lords into a travesty, but the name still persists, and it’s a constant irritant. Let’s call it the Senate, shall we?
That has a better, republican ring to it, as does President Starmer. If our monarch will no longer be head of state, someone has to be, and Starmer’s name just rolls off the tongue. Make him president, Angie prime minister, Britain a republic, and Macron is your uncle.
This little exercise in reductio ad absurdum isn’t as absurd as you might think. Another socialist, Mao, taught that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step. During their short tenure, the Starmer government has taken quite a few steps in the direction of the EU, and these can turn into giant strides at any moment.
I hope this socialist march through the institutions can be stopped before King Charles III becomes Charlie Mountbatten. And the way of stopping it is revolting against any move in that direction, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem.
“One talon gets stuck, the whole bird will perish,” says the Russian proverb. I’m not sure our folklore has an exact equivalent. But this is the spirit in which our government acts – and Britain is the bird.
P.S. An attempt to commit a crime is criminal in itself. Thus any self-policing driver who fails his car’s breathalyser test, should arrest himself for attempted DUI – and rough himself up if he resists. I wonder if Sir Keir has thought of this.