Just get over it

David Cameron, apparently, has said that the UK should retain its membership in the EU. As he put it, to be "in Europe, not ruled by Europe".

It occurred to me that this is a bit like telling a rape victim that since he has already had his wicked way with her, she ought to just get over it and marry the guy.

"The total scale of EU legislation is enormous. Last year, the EU passed 177 directives, which are more or less equivalent to our Acts of Parliament, and 2,033 regulations, which become directly enforceable in this place, not to mention 1,045 decisions. Even that huge tally ignores the extent to which our powers are diminished by our inability to do things that we would like to do because they would conflict with European law. When I was a Minister, officials would frequently say, “No, Minister, you can’t do that”, because something was within the exclusive competence of the European Union. -

Peter Lilley, House of Commons, Daily Hansard, 3 Jun 2008, 3.35 pm.