Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.

Lysander Spooner

Owen Paterson has been attempting to show the Americans that Brexit does not mean the end of the UK – far from it. Unfortunately, it will no doubt become apparent that, like those of us with similar views, Paterson is banging his head against the proverbial brick wall.

When the current debate about this country’s membership of the EU is considered, it is odd that the one argument currently used to continue our membership is an economic one, whereas when the UK joined what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) the argument was a political one; based on the idea that the diplomatic gains would outweigh the economic costs.

As in 1975, what we are seeing now is the political class selectively using propaganda on ‘matters EU’; in other words they lie to us purely for their own political benefit; and in this they are aided and abetted by the media. I believe it was Hitler that pointed out the most brilliant propaganda will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind, constantly and with unflagging attention – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.

This is borne out with some simple examples: for example; how often are we informed that the UK must be ‘in’ the EU to trade with the EU; or that 3 million jobs depend on our membership of the EU? For anyone who has any understanding of ‘matters EU’ it will be recognised that both the foregoing political mantras are palpably false.

The political class know that those of us attempting to educate the people on the subject of EU membership – and democracy – face an uphill struggle in that they are well aware it is far easier to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated – and boy, have our political class, aided by a compliant media, mis-educated the people. Both those groups are well aware of the benefits of propaganda in that they know while it does deceive people it also helps people deceive themselves.

That the political class will go to any lengths to negate discussion about ‘matters EU’ has recently been illustrated in two Select Committee reports, one from the Commons and the other from the Lords. The former, from the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, complains that the Government appears guilty of imposing a ‘lock-own’ on debate and/or discussion of ‘matters EU; while the second, from the Lords European Select Committee complains about the failure of the Government to promote their Review of the Balance of Competences and for the lack of clarity on the true costs. Then of course, we have instances of Members of Parliament who, when questioned, refuse to enter into debate – witness David Cameron and the dossier which I presented to him.

It could be said that politicians manipulate the media; conversely, the media seems only too willing to repeat whatever our politicians say, whether it be true or false. Either way, the end result is akin to poisoning a nation’s water supply – it affects all of our lives in unimaginable ways. On that point, Hannah Arendt is reputed to have said in The Origins of Totalitarianism, that there is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits – and where our political class and the media are concerned, I would suggest that never a truer word had been written.

Where our political class can be said to control the media – and vice versa – we sorry few, who attempt to have our voices heard about not only the defects of this nation’s membership of the European Union, but also on the subject of the deficits in our present system of democracy, are fighting a losing battle. One could be forgiven for thinking that maybe we should just accept the inevitable – and concede defeat.

Never!