Post by Wayne Hall on Mar 7, 2023 22:21:45 GMT -5
enouranois.eu/enouranois/Oikia/hddf/eucon.html
European Convention, European Constitution
An extract: "Britain’s constitution is said to be based on "parliamentary sovereignty", embodied in the conception that "Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament." If Parliament itself signs away that sovereignty, as in fact occurred with Britain’s act of accession to the EC under the European Communities Act of 1972, upholders of what has until now been understood as constitutional legality in Britain are obliged to turn elsewhere for support.
On Friday March 23rd 2001 a petition was presented at Buckingham Palace signed by 28 members of the House of Lords, supported by 60 other peers and endorsed by "7,000 other loyal subjects, many of whom signed on behalf of organisations with tens of thousands of members" urging Queen Elizabeth to withhold assent from the Treaty of Nice on the grounds that "the European Union is threatening to set up a military force which will place British service personnel under its direct command, restrict the free expression of political opinion, and permit the introduction of an alien system of criminal justice which will abolish the ancient British rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and allow onto British soil men-at-arms from other countries with powers of enforcement."
The peers were using their rights under Magna Carta, signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. Under clause 61, four peers, representing 25 others, can petition the Monarch for "redress of grievances". These were powers that had not been used for over 300 years. "We have petitioned her Majesty", the text continued, "to withhold the Royal Assent from any Bill seeking to ratify the Treaty of Nice because there is clear evidence that it is in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United Kingdom. It conflicts with Magna Carta, with the Declaration and Bill of Rights and, above all, with Her Majesty's Coronation Oath and the Oaths of Office of Her Majesty's ministers… Ultimately, our supreme protection is Her Majesty’s obligation under the Coronation Oath. The Queen has solemnly promised to govern the peoples of the United Kingdom ‘according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and according to their laws and customs.’ Recent statements by (Labour government) ministers, and by the previous prime minister (Mr. Major), confirm that they would not advise any measure which might tend to breach the Coronation Oath nor betray Her Majesty's promise to her loyal subjects. Her Majesty accepts the advice of her ministers and conversely it is their duty to advise in accordance with the Coronation Oath. They cannot lawfully advise a breach. Nor can they gain or remain in power without swearing allegiance to the Crown. Yet the Treaty of Nice represents precisely such a breach, and it has now been signed by the foreign secretary using the Royal Prerogative."
The Lords’ petition received hardly any coverage at all from the newspapers and television in Britain or elsewhere. It was passed over in almost total silence, never receiving any substantial reply either from Queen Elizabeth or any representative of the Crown, despite the fact that the arguments put forward by the Lords are the realities of existing constitutional law in the United Kingdom. The mass media proved more than adequate to sweeping such formalistic quibbling under the carpet, without even needing to draw on reserve forces from the organized Left, who on other recent occasions, e.g. with Haider and Le Pen in Europe, Pauline Hanson in Australia, Milosevic in Yugoslavia, have had to be pressed into service to deal with populist opponents rather more robust than these petitioning Lords."
European Convention, European Constitution
An extract: "Britain’s constitution is said to be based on "parliamentary sovereignty", embodied in the conception that "Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament." If Parliament itself signs away that sovereignty, as in fact occurred with Britain’s act of accession to the EC under the European Communities Act of 1972, upholders of what has until now been understood as constitutional legality in Britain are obliged to turn elsewhere for support.
On Friday March 23rd 2001 a petition was presented at Buckingham Palace signed by 28 members of the House of Lords, supported by 60 other peers and endorsed by "7,000 other loyal subjects, many of whom signed on behalf of organisations with tens of thousands of members" urging Queen Elizabeth to withhold assent from the Treaty of Nice on the grounds that "the European Union is threatening to set up a military force which will place British service personnel under its direct command, restrict the free expression of political opinion, and permit the introduction of an alien system of criminal justice which will abolish the ancient British rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and allow onto British soil men-at-arms from other countries with powers of enforcement."
The peers were using their rights under Magna Carta, signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. Under clause 61, four peers, representing 25 others, can petition the Monarch for "redress of grievances". These were powers that had not been used for over 300 years. "We have petitioned her Majesty", the text continued, "to withhold the Royal Assent from any Bill seeking to ratify the Treaty of Nice because there is clear evidence that it is in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United Kingdom. It conflicts with Magna Carta, with the Declaration and Bill of Rights and, above all, with Her Majesty's Coronation Oath and the Oaths of Office of Her Majesty's ministers… Ultimately, our supreme protection is Her Majesty’s obligation under the Coronation Oath. The Queen has solemnly promised to govern the peoples of the United Kingdom ‘according to the Statutes in Parliament agreed on and according to their laws and customs.’ Recent statements by (Labour government) ministers, and by the previous prime minister (Mr. Major), confirm that they would not advise any measure which might tend to breach the Coronation Oath nor betray Her Majesty's promise to her loyal subjects. Her Majesty accepts the advice of her ministers and conversely it is their duty to advise in accordance with the Coronation Oath. They cannot lawfully advise a breach. Nor can they gain or remain in power without swearing allegiance to the Crown. Yet the Treaty of Nice represents precisely such a breach, and it has now been signed by the foreign secretary using the Royal Prerogative."
The Lords’ petition received hardly any coverage at all from the newspapers and television in Britain or elsewhere. It was passed over in almost total silence, never receiving any substantial reply either from Queen Elizabeth or any representative of the Crown, despite the fact that the arguments put forward by the Lords are the realities of existing constitutional law in the United Kingdom. The mass media proved more than adequate to sweeping such formalistic quibbling under the carpet, without even needing to draw on reserve forces from the organized Left, who on other recent occasions, e.g. with Haider and Le Pen in Europe, Pauline Hanson in Australia, Milosevic in Yugoslavia, have had to be pressed into service to deal with populist opponents rather more robust than these petitioning Lords."