A secret document, FCO 30/1048 has been declassified after 30 years, and has exposed what was predicted about the future of the EU. The document, written by a senior civil servant, correctly predicts that the EU will involve ever greater monetary and political union, It further predicts that community law will take precedence over our law and that people will feel alienated from government as a result. It described the process as the biggest handing over of British sovereignty since 1066. The document suggested that politicians keep this information from the British public so that, by the time it comes out, it would be too late to leave.

This document shows that people knew right from the beginning that the EU would take power from the UK. It was always evident that EU law would take primacy over UK law. What is so shocking is the secrecy that attaches to the document. Politicians were supposed to keep quiet about the fact that so much was happening in unaccountable Brussels and keep the impression going that they were still in charge. There was a concerted effort to keep the reality of the EU from the British people. When Remainers complain that people were lied to during the referendum campaign it should be borne in mind that people were lied to going in to the EU.

It is clear that it was always anticipated that the EU would involve ever closer union. When we voted to join the EU it was not clear what it was we were voting for. If it had been made clear that it was a very expensive way of giving up British sovereignty no one would have voted for it in the first place.

The only inaccuracy in the document’s predictions is that if the information was kept from the public for long enough it would be too late to leave the EU. In all other aspects of its predictions it was chillingly accurate. It goes to show that the EU was always more than the trading relationship people were sold when they were first asked to join. The fact that top civil servants and politicians conspired to keep this from the British people is highly objectionable.

When Ted Heath’s government took us into the EEC it was done on the basis of half truths and deception. The EU that grew out of the EEC was always anticipated and was predicted at the time we went in. What is so reprehensible is that the government took the civil servants’ advice to lie about it.

One of the reasons why it is essential that we get out now is that the transference of powers from member states to Brussels is an ongoing project that hasn’t stopped since the inception of the EEC. There is no doubt that the ultimate aim is an EU superstate with centralised powers.Getting out before that became a reality was and is essential.

At the time we were asked to vote to join the EEC it was described as a trading arrangement and sold to us on the basis that it would make things cheaper. In fact it made food more expensive and was a far more politically based project than a mere trading arrangement. FCO30/1048 shows that people knew the truth back then and took steps to keep it from us.

It can only be wondered how many more similar documents there are keeping the truth about various subjects from us. How much of the job of politicians is to lie to their constituents? It is no wonder that we have become alienated from the political class if this is the manner in which they conduct themselves.

Documents like FCO30/1048 give us an insight into the shadowy workings of government and show how the EU project was always based on lies and half truths. As we pull out of the project it is time we held our politicians to account. It cannot be right that they lie to us in order to achieve their objectives. Time has come for a more honest relationship with the people in which straight talking politicians lay out the realities that lie behind their actions. Will it happen? Who knows but it is worth striving for.