Remember the prime ministers re-negotiation?

As we embark on the final week before we Vote, let’s reflect back on what we’re actually voting on.  Yes, there is the simple question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"

But the foundation for the prime minister saying we should vote remains was based on his re-negotiations earlier this year. So let us reflect of two things about the re-negotiations. 

First of all, the prime minister’s renegotiation is not legally binding because it cannot be.  The only way to make things legally binding is to change the Treaties.  This hasn’t happened and nobody can guarantee it will happen.  

Secondly, the European Court of Justice is in charge of exactly the same things after the Government’s renegotiation as it was before, and it can bin concessions made to the prime minister the day after we vote. 

As Marina Wheeler, QC pointed out in an article in The Times, “what’s important is its status under EU law: if the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg considers any part of the agreement (or measures taken to implement it) to be incompatible with existing EU law, it can strike them down.”

In other words, even if we vote to remain, there is zero guarantee any of the stuff that the prime minister did bring back will be implemented.  And given the record of the European Commission, they will just ignore a UK vote like they did in Denmark and Ireland and Greece…..  The EU is basically a law unto itself.  It set the rules, it implements the rules.  And it decides if it has broken its own rules.

These are not just technical things for the political chattering classes.  Both of these things directly affect you and me, though we may not realise it.

The Leave movement want a Europe based on free trade and friendly cooperation.   The only people who will block that if the UK decide to vote Leave is the European Commission.  Not the businesses that simply want to trade.