Bernard Ingham: Brexit '“ and why claims of Remainers are tantamount to fraud

I am not specifically referring to Ted Heath’s claim that EU membership would bring no loss of UK sovereignty. Tell that to British fishermen.

Nor am I thinking of the risible notion that the EU would improve our economic performance. Only Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to bow the knee to the union barons eventually removed the constant threat of economic damage from strikes and liberated enterprise from the class war.

And, no, I do not cite the pathetic idea that the EU has prevented war in Europe for 45 years when the credit properly goes to Nato, to which, incidentally, a majority of EU members systematically fail to honour their pledge of financial support.

All these are fraudulent arguments. What is more the Remainers, Remoaners, Europhiles – whether an ermined Fifth Column or not – know it. That is why they fall back on Project Fear, which did not work before the referendum and has since proved to be largely fiction.

Yet Project Fear is still employed and in the process points to the real EU fraud. It is the inability of the pro-EU lobby to produce a coherent case for our continued membership. They are all for something but cannot – or dare not – articulate why it is indispensable to modern Britain.

Let me try to fill the vacuum. For me, the best case for remaining in the EU is that we have done reasonably well, if not brilliantly, out of 45 years’ membership. Why upset the applecart?

Over this time, our development has been woven into the fabric of Europe and untying the many knots is potentially disruptive both to our politics and industrial and commercial confidence.

In any case, Britain is a necessary counterweight to the power of France and Germany and our general reliability, our international diplomatic experience and commercial and scientific know-how make us an invaluable ally.

Whether we like it or not, we are part of Europe and have always believed in international co-operation. Don’t let’s spoil the habit of a lifetime. Let’s stick with what we’ve got and make it work better for all the peoples of Europe. Remember what John Donne said – no man is an island.

You never hear such a case argued persuasively and honestly by Remainers. Instead, they resort to the mechanics of Parliament by endlessly amending legislation (14 amendments in the Lords so far) to keep us in an institution whose merits they resolutely refuse to explain, still less justify.

I would like to think this is because of their basic honesty, knowing full well their case is threadbare. But I find that difficult to believe because of their record or their financial interest in retaining membership of an institution that, for example, pays their pensions or handsomely rewards them through the CAP for land ownership.

No, they opt to keep quiet about the reality of the present and likely future EU and its effect on British life because they are frauds of the worst kind. As public representatives, Remainers have – or ought to have – a responsibility for telling the public the truth about our present arrangements.

So what is the truth? First and foremost, as a political institution, the EU is undemocratic. It is essentially a bureaucracy with only theoretical political control. The unelected Commission runs the show with the permission, provided it serves their purpose, of France and Germany.

It tends to achieve its objective by bullying, even forcing nations to stage successive polls until they come up with the “right”answer. This, in effect, is the ploy of the Remainers through their legislative amendments.

Not surprisingly, people see little purpose in voting in UK elections. They know Britain is not in control of its own destiny. What, they say, is the point in going to the polls? In other words our democracy is imperilled.

But that is not the end of it. The Europhiles are fixated on a federal Europe that logically promises the end of current nationhood. No one has ever voted for that

All this and a single currency that impoverishes the southern half of Europe, Brussels’ financial incontinence, persistent corruption and a wilful refusal to pay their whack in their own defence.

Who would be a member of that? Show me a Europhile and I will show you a fraud.