How Keir Starmer has just signed up to UN 'commitment' that goes against everything Brexit was about
If politicians are not accountable to the public, then surely their tax rises become legalised theft, suggests Brian Monteith
It is often the small things, the details, that trip politicians up and turn the people against them. Few understood and probably fewer cared about Nicola Sturgeon’s zeal for relaxing the process of changing gender in Scotland. Then, once the reality of what it actually meant was illustrated by the ability of a male charged with two rapes to then decide “he” should become the “she” called Isla Bryson and thereby be located in a female prison, the public appreciated what the changes could mean.
Sturgeon’s deputy, John Swinney, and her replacement, Humza Yousaf, both carried on defending the policy even after it became clear the UK Government would stand in their way. Thank you to the then Scottish Secretary of State, Alister Jack, for having the cojones to stand up to the SNP government, and indeed the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, who had also backed the policy.
It was telling to see how those advocating gender recognition reform pointed to some similar laws in a few other countries. It is a common enough approach, to say a certain country does something without harm or even to its benefit, as a reason to advocate our country doing the same. Another country’s experience can be used as an evidence base – but when the evidence is misrepresented or actually ignored it weakens the case for the change being advocated and for the practice of looking abroad for answers.
Higher taxes loom?
More worrying than misrepresenting overseas experience is when policies are manufactured not from the ground up but from the gatherings of international political leaders taking top-down decisions in unison.
We now learn our Prime Minister has signed up to an agreement formulated by the United Nations that supports further personal and corporate tax rises and the introduction of particular taxes on alcohol, tobacco, vapes and sugar, amongst other things. As if this contracting out of policy to people we did not elect was not bad enough, the UK encouraged and agreed to various “side-deals” that introduce a commitment to advocate additional or higher taxes in specific areas not covered by the broader agreement.
It all happened in Seville, Spain, last week and is known as the Sevilla Commitment – the result of 192 countries attending a five-day summit, where there would be much arm-twisting and self-serving deals – all out of reach of public accountability. The final text of the deal contains 42 references to taxation.
When questioned about the UK’s support, a government spokesperson sought to play the matter down by saying that the Sevilla Commitment was not legally binding but simply a general consensus. What utter disingenuous cowardice.
Brexit an act of democratic pushback
It’s a commitment, made with our money but without any consultation or our consent. Surely if politicians are not accountable to the public then their tax rises become legalised theft? If it did not matter to our political elite who attend these summits and conclaves, why agree to the outcome? If there was no intention to act upon the declarations, why even attend?
It is having politicians who love the limelight and self-importance of summits and who commit to policies never once considered in the domestic debate that explains how Brexit came about and also the rise of so-called populist parties around the world. Such reactions are democratic pushback against our own political class that seeks solace and support at junkets and jollies then wrapping up objectionable policies in candy floss.
What we are witnessing in parliamentary elections across Europe (and beyond) is a rejection of the patrician disdain and arrogance of our elected betters who have shown time and again they are unfit to take decisions on our behalf.
Having worked as an advisor in the field of international development, the idea we should continue with the unfiltered use of development aid – to quote the late Anglo-Hungarian economist Peter Bauer, “the process by which the poor in rich countries subsidise the rich in poor countries” – is flawed and no amount of special pleading can alter the fact that this well-intentioned but naïve policy has repeatedly failed.
Globalisation of democracy
This is how globalisation of political action – as opposed to meaning the free trade of goods and services – has taken its grip on democratic parliaments the world over. Take a step back and what we find is there is a concerted effort by a caste of politicians across Europe and around the world who believe our lives should be decided not by accountable democratic processes that work from the bottom up, but from impossibly accountable decisions taken at summits and 'expert' gatherings of multilateral bureaucracies that work top down.
The World Health Organisation – a China-influenced multinational body that has a great deal to answer for during the Covid pandemic – is one such example. Not only did it invent new policy that directly contradicted its earlier pronouncements on the efficacy of public health approaches (such its stance on masks) – it influenced directly the actions of governments that felt they had to be seen to be taking the WHO policies seriously.
If we want to understand why Keir Starmer makes easy concessions to Mauritius on Chagos without the consent of Chagossians, never mind UK citizens – and does the same over Gibraltar and Spain – it is his love of international law that is free of any accountability to the people it purports to serve that provides the answer. The solution is to bring back domestic accountability so politicians are responsible for the consequences of their actions.
Fortunately there is hope that we can repatriate our political control from the politicians who willingly work to give away our personal and national sovereignty, but it first requires recognising what we are dealing with the loss of sovereign decision making. Ensuring our politicians become fully accountable is the only disinfectant that will remove this poison from our system.
Brian Monteith is a former member of the Scottish and European parliaments and senior advisor to the Tax Reform Council
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