When Edward Heath explained to the public the implications for the UK of joining the Common Market he said there would be no loss of sovereignty. In fact the civil service had briefed the Cabinet differently – he lied.
The briefing paper was released to the National Archives under the 30 year rule and we have a copy:
Here are some of the interesting points made in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office briefing document (FCO 30/1048 – 1971):
We will lose sovereignty … and our laws will become secondary to EU law:
We were joining the Common Market but the path to total union was known:
But the public won’t like it so the Government had better not to tell them too much:
Deliberate deception of the public didn’t end on our entry to the Common Market. When Tony Blair accepted the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights we were told it would have no more legal force than the Beano. That changed with the Lisbon Treaty; the Charter has the same force as the treaties and is used by the ECJ to override UK Courts.
This EU Won't Work 