1. References

The People's Brexit is an independent, cross-political party Campaign and Research Group which was established in December 2018 in response to public demand to not only achieve Brexit but on UK terms and with EU compensation and co-operation based upon the illegitimate circumstances behind which the UK ended up in the EEC on 1/1/73. The extensive research by legally trained researchers was made possible by the improvements made in 2018 to online Historical Hansard. Another objective of the Campaign is to inform the People of the UK about the facts obtained from Parliamentary Debates as recorded in Hansard, many of which were conducted late at night or early in the morning behind the closed doors of Parliament before the days of television coverage and after any newspaper reporters had left for the day.

One fact that was established was when the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, signed the Treaty of Accession to the EEC on 22nd January 1972 he did not have a Mandate from the People or Parliament to do so..^[1]. In fact the biggest opinion poll/ Referendum of the time of Voters was the Labour Party vote at their Conference of Autumn 1971, highlighted by Mrs Renee Short MP in her speech in Parliament before the signing of the Treaty, when she revealed the result had been over 5 million members against joining the EEC and only 1 million in favour (representing over 83% of voters opposed) ^[2]. Heath upon signing the Treaty also ignored his Mandate from the Manifesto he was elected upon in 1970 when he promised 'our sole commitment is to negotiate; no more no less' ^[3]

Much incorrect and misleading information was given to both the People and Parliament over more than a decade by successive Governments. An example of this was the White Paper the Heath Government published in 1971 ^[4]. This document was filled with misleading and incorrect information and massive omissions as to the true implications of EEC membership, such as the 42 volumes of over 2,500 EEC Regulations, 10 volumes of Treaties and thousands of other directives and secondary legislation all of which had to be adopted into UK law, much of it taking precedent to existing laws. This White Paper was also supplied to the EEC, so they knew exactly what had been provided in the way of information to the UK People and Parliament ^[5]. For many years many of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money was given to the British Council of the European Movement, the sole purpose of which was to promote the EEC, of which the three main Political Party Leaders of Heath, Wilson and Thorpe were the three Patrons ^[6].

The first denied demand for a Referendum was on whether or not to even negotiate to join the EEC was made as far back as 1961^[7]. After this, over the years there were countless further demands and attempts to obtain a Referendum all of which were denied. At the time of the signing of the Treaty of Accession there were three other countries (Denmark, Norway and Ireland) applying to join all of which had a Referendum of their People. On this subject Mr Fred Peart MP stated at the Parliamentary Debate prior to Heath signing the Treaty "we should bear in mind that there is no civilised country in the world which allows a basic constitutional change to be made without a Referendum, without the consent of the People or without a special majority of their legislatures. This is true of, for example, Denmark, Norway and Ireland. Thus the Prime Minister will be signing the Treaty of Accession on behalf of the British Government, but he will be ignoring Parliament and the British People" ^[8]

The EEC played a large role in signing up an unwilling UK population which was at odds to the entire foundations of the EEC which was supposed to be based on democracy. The EEC founding Treaty stated '...to preserve and strengthen peace and liberty, and calling upon the other peoples of Europe who share their ideal to join in their efforts....' ^[9].

Therefore, based upon this it should have been a condition of joining that the EEC demanded that the Heath Government conducted a Referendum to establish whether the People of the UK actually wanted to join the EEC and it was a denial of democracy that they did not.

The interest of UK politicians in integrating with other European countries predated the Treaty of Rome of 1957 and when the founding six countries made some success of the EEC Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was desperate to join and initiated negotiations in 1961 conducted by Heath which went on until 1963 when President de Gaulle vetoed the attempt. Under the Wilson Government negotiations again officially commenced in 1967 and for a second time were vetoed by de Gaulle in November 1967. Then, according to Wilson, the application to join was 'left on the table' and was never officially withdrawn as it legally should have been. Negotiations were recommenced in 1970 and after a shock Labour election defeat in early June 1970 the negotiations were merely taken over by the incoming Conservative Government under Heath in late June 1970. These carried on largely in secret mainly in Brussels for a year with just minimal reports made to Parliament. Finally it was announced in June 1971 that most of the negotiations were finished and the UK was ready to join subject to "the approval of Parliament" ^[10]. There was no question of the People of the UK being permitted a Referendum upon joining, despite the numerous demands made in Parliament.

After Heath signed the Treaty of Accession he then had the problem of getting the legislation through Parliament to bring it into UK law. He had managed to get a majority of 122 votes in favour in principle of joining the EEC in the meaningful vote of 28/10/71 and used this as justification to progress the application. The Bill on the second reading of the European Communities Act 1972 was passed through by only 8 votes, this was after many of the true facts at last became known and many more MPs voted against it. At the Committee stage of the Bill many of the hundreds of amendments sought were ruled out of Order due to the expert drafting of the Bill and the remainder were voted against by the Government using its majority and Liberal co-operation. On the third and final reading, Heath forced it through by a tiny majority that finally took the Bill through the House of Commons by a mere 17 votes ^[11]. Exactly the same process was used to get it through the House of Lords. Heath got it through both Houses without a single amendment, a feat almost unknown for any legislation let alone probably the most Legal, Constitutional and Sovereignty impacting legislation ever and the European Communities Act 1972 achieved Royal Assent on 17/10/72 ^[12].

The normal argument given by EEC/EU supporters is that somehow the 1975 Referendum made the entry to the EEC legitimate, but this is not the case and there are many reasons for this conclusion. Firstly, the whole principle of having a retrospective Referendum is biased and legally unsound based on the principle that a Government may not legally legislate retrospectively. Secondly, it was a very reluctant Referendum on the part of Wilson, who was an ardent supporter of the EEC because he was committed to do so by his election Manifesto ^[13]. This was seen by many as a bribe to the Electorate by a Prime Minister desperate to win a second election in a year and an attempt to increase his majority so that he did not have to continue to suffer a hung Parliament. The slender majority achieved after the October 1974 election did mean that Wilson had to honour this promise for a Referendum. This was also necessary in order to keep his Party on side and to appease the many anti-EEC MPs in the Labour Party. He had denied Referendums on many occasions as Prime Minister using the argument that it would be "contrary to our traditions in this country" and on one of these occasions he even stated that Ministers should resign if they took "a contrary view" ^[14]. When the Referendum did happen the question asked was very biased in favour of a 'Yes' vote. Further, the 'Yes' campaign was extensively bankrolled by businesses and individuals and supported by Government propaganda and all the main newspapers, whereas the 'No' campaign was very poorly promoted. There are extensive claims that the Referendum result was rigged in favour of the Government. This is reinforced by the fact that no legislation, such as the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000, to oversee the process was in force at the time and so it is now widely considered that the result of the 1975 Referendum should be disregarded as a false result.

After extensive research which is still ongoing, The People's Brexit are determined to achieve Brexit with resolution, restitution and compensation for the UK with full EU co-operation. This is righting a wrong that has been done to the UK by both past UK politicians and the EEC/EU who should now accept their share of the problem. All the other applicant countries at the time of the UK joining had to achieve high Parliamentary majorities in addition to succeeding in a Referendum of their People. If there had been a democratically administered Referendum or 'People's Vote' at the point when it could and should have been granted prior to 1/1/73, the fact of the matter is the UK would never have joined the EEC/EU, based upon all public opinion polls of the time. This fact is reaffirmed by the result of the Referendum of 2016, when the majority of the UK People voted to leave the EU.

References

• Elco, Illinois
• El Colacho
• El Colacho Festival
• Elco Launch Company
• El Colegio de Veracruz
• El Colegio Nacional
• El Colegio Nacional (Mexico)
• El Collado Formation
• El Collao Province
• El Coll - la Teixonera (Barcelona Metro)
• El Coll – La Teixonera (Barcelona Metro)
• El coloquio de los perros
• El Colorado
• El Colorado, Santiago del Estero
• El Color de los Suenos
• El Coloso
• El Comercio (disambiguation)
• El comienzo de la Historia
• El Comienzo de la Historia
• El Comite
• El Comtat
• Elcom Technology
• El Concierto Acustico
• El Concierto Sinfonico
• El Concierto Tour