JUST whose side are they on?In my last column, I wrote about a meeting in Tampere, scheduled for the September 22. Despite it being critical to the future of our legal system, our Home Secretary chose not to go.

JUST whose side are they on?

In my last column, I wrote about a meeting in Tampere, scheduled for the September 22. Despite it being critical to the future of our legal system, our Home Secretary chose not to go. The opposition to the proposals was left to the Irish. So much for our government standing up for our rights and preserving our legal system.

In politics, nothing ever goes away, it gets hidden on the principle `Out of sight, out of mind.'. So we no longer have the imminent prospect of the UK joining the eurozone, but the proposal still exists. So does the proposal known as the Constitution discussed in this newspaper last week by Andrew Duff.

I attended the launch of his booklet in Brussels last week. The one question unanswered after all the brouhaha (that you paid for) was “Who wants this?”

Well, I would suggest, it is not the great British public. No, it is the political elite who seek to impose their ideas by whatever means at their disposal and some that they will create for the purpose. You will remember that both France and Holland said '`no' in their referendums. That was it; not `yes,' `maybe,' `if,' or `possibly.' Quite simply, it was `no'

It is that independence of thought that worries the political elite. Just how can you think this way when we have done so much for you? Just how ungrateful can you get? So, undaunted, they carry on in their own deluded world thinking up new strategies to get their way.

So it is with the expansion of the EU. When the Parliament voted on the proposals to allow 10 new countries to join in May 2004, it was left to UKIP to point out that one consequence might be a massive influx of folk coming here for better paid work.

We were told `no, do not go scaremongering. All our calculations show it will only be about 15,000.' Two years on, and we know the truth. Thirty thousand a month is more realistic; but even that is uncertain as the government says it has no accurate records. We have no idea who is coming into the country, why they are here and how long they will stay.

As if that were not bad enough, we now have the alarming prospect of two new countries - Bulgaria and Romania - joining the EU club in January. The scale of previous flow of immigrants set alarm bells ringing in Whitehall and the Home Secretary is now proposing to introduce limits - except that his action will be declared illegal under EU protocols. We did not set any limits in 2004 so we cannot in 2007.

That would be discrimination.

Perhaps we should ignore whose side politicians are on, we should ask "Who is in charge?" From my investigations, it is not the British government.

TOM Wise is a UK Independence Party Euro MP for the East of England.