Brussels bites back

Anthony Browne reports on the EU’s unabated lust for control of national policies, from law and order to universities, from biotechnology to tax

Brussels

It was perhaps inevitable that the crash in central London of Banana Republic Airlines Flight 101, which killed 453 people and created a swath of destruction across Islington, provoked Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. Few could understand how the judges in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg had the power to overturn the secretary of state’s ban on the airline for its poor safety record, giving it the right to enter UK airspace. As the body-count mounted, not even the most ardent Europhiles wanted to justify the fact that a panel of unelected and unaccountable judges with no known expertise in aviation safety had the power to overrule the British government on banning airlines from flying into Britain. Public blame of the EU was sealed when it emerged that the reason no one could remember the British government handing over this power to the EU’s supreme court in Luxembourg was that ministers had never publicly announced it — no statement in Parliament, not even a press release.