The attempts of several top British lawmakers to sway public opinion towards continued membership in the European Union have escalated to the level of fear mongering, according to former media mogul Conrad Black.
“The tremendous effort that has been deployed by the UK government to frighten the country, I think has really been quite offensive and excessive,” he said on CTV’s Power Play.
Several prominent British politicians led by Prime Minister David Cameron have come out against a so-called Brexit, including Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
The most recent public opinion polls on the Brexit remain too close to call just hours before British citizens cast their votes on continued membership in the political and economic alliance.
Cameron has said peace and stability in Europe and the UK cannot be assured if Britain votes to leave the 28-member coalition. Carney, who previously governed Canada’s central bank, has warned that leaving the EU could cause the British pound to fall “sharply” and result in lost jobs and higher prices for consumers.
Black, who renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to sit in the British House of Lords, says the economic stability argument, which has been central to the “remain” side’s campaign, does not hold water.
“Other countries like Norway and Switzerland get along perfectly well with complete arm’s length,” he said.
Black also disagrees with those that characterize the “leave” side of the debate as supporting British isolationism.
“No one really seriously is talking about going back to a world where tariff rules existed and there was no co-ordination at all between the UK and the major European countries,” he said. “I’m not a ‘Little Englander,’ and I’m certainly not in favour of breaking up all relations with the rest of the European Union.”
Unlike many of the Euro-skeptics who have put immigration and its impact on the UK labour market at the forefront of their push for greater British autonomy, Black says he is in favour of “as free of movement as possible” for “responsible individuals who will be productive member of whatever societies they are going to.”
Blacks support for Britain’s exodus from the European Union is rooted in his distaste for the primacy of EU law over UK law as outlined by the European Communities Act of 1972, which predates the formation of the union. EU laws trumps British legislation unless Parliament expressly says this is not the case, or British courts believe that the EU has exceeded its powers, according to legal scholars.
“My concern is the tendency of Brussels as a fundamentally anti-democratic organization to demand more and more meticulous powers of interference in the lives of individuals and corporations and enterprise of all kinds in all of the member states,” he said. “I would be and am opposed to stripping bare institutions that have served Britain well for centuries in order to cloth institutions founded with the best of intentions, but very recently, and quite unproved.”
