Just as Britain’s American colonies finally had enough in 1776, and said so, it seems that the UK has finally had enough of the European Union, and is about to say so. Interestingly enough, the UK’s issues with the EU are pretty much the same in 2016 as America’s issues with Great Britain in 1776 – so much so that I thought that the following adaptation of the US “Declaration of Independence” fits today’s circumstances quite nicely, and quite ironically as well.
So here goes:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of the United Kingdom; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their subjugation to the European Union in Brussels. The history of the European Union is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over all EU member states including the United Kingdom. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
They have refused their Assent to Laws most wholesome and necessary for the public good. They have forbidden their member states of the EU to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, they have utterly neglected to attend to them. They have refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the EU Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. They have called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the legislatures of individual member states, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with their measures. They have sanctioned sovereign nation members repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the people. They have obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing their Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. They have made EU Judges dependent on the EU alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of unproductive and demonstrably dangerous immigrants among us: For protecting these immigrants from punishment for crimes which they should commit on the Inhabitants of EU member nations including the United Kingdom: For cutting off our independent Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury, instead imposing “rulings” in which the general population of the UK has no say: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For over-ruling our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Ruling body whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyranny is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our EU brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of our long and honored history of independence. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the citizens of the United Kingdom, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these lands, solemnly publish and declare, That the United Kingdom is, and of Right ought to be a Free and Independent State; that the United Kingdom is Absolved from all Allegiance to the European Union, and that all political connection between them and the United Kingdom, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent State, the United Kingdom has full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor
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