Losing sovereignty and rights

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views April 8, 2002]

In his book, Dispatches From a Dying Country: Reflections on Modern England, Sean Gabb offers ascerbic accounts of the gradual extinction of the liberal traditions of England, while claiming that his country is moving ever closer to a police state. He writes:

During the past generation, a new Establishment has grown up in England, in America, and in some other countries. Its ultimate ambition is a world government. I am not talking about a grand conspiracy. There is no central direction. Here in particular, the groups making up our Establishment are split--some wanting an interim merger with Europe, others a direct jump to world government. Even so, they are all agreed that their often different ends are best served by transferring sovereign power out of the country.

This new Establishment's success is already apparent. The world government exists in outline--as a web of treaties and international bodies that constrain national sovereignty in ways that most people still do not understand. This country cannot, for example, legalise cannabis and heroin, or roll back the financial police state that has been created to fight the "war" against money laundering. It cannot allow a whole range of industrial proccesses to take place within its jurisdiction.

It may soon not be able to tolerate the sale of high potency vitamins or the publication of unfashionable opinions about race. Even if a democratic majority could be found in favor of these things, doing them would involve breaking all manner of treaty commitments. And to break these would bring on us the condemnation of the "international community."

-- Sean Gabb is a university lecturer and editor of Free Life, the journal of England's Libertarian Alliance. Get more information about his book, Dispatches From a Dying Country, here, or write The Hampden Press, 25 Chapter Chambers, Esterbrooke Street, London SW1P 4NN, England.

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