The undermining and dismantling of the nation is a primary objective of those promoting global government. As we have already highlighted, one path to this objective is the desired ascendency of the power of the City.
So it wasn't surprising to learn that in its' first week an online petition calling for London to declare independence had gathered more than 175,000 signatures. Against this background London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, suggested that 'Britain's political, social, and financial capital needs more power to self-govern once the United Kingdom does leave the European Union'.
Self-government of London is a logical next step towards Benjamin Barber's vision of a Global Parliament of Mayors
A planet ruled by cities represents a new paradigm of global governance – of democratic glocalism rather than top-down imposition, of horizontalism rather than hierarchy, of pragmatic interdependence rather than outworn ideologies of national independence.
Yet the cities agenda is only one path towards global governance and, increasingly, global government.
Renewed Calls for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
On 6 May 2016 the African Mail & Guardian published an article 'The United Nations needs a global parliamentary assembly'. The authors, Stevens Mokgalapa and Heinrich Volmink, wrote
A UN parliamentary assembly would have a vital role in protecting human rights, consolidating democratic institutions, popularising responsible leadership and promoting good governance. This assembly would be a sign of the spirit of transparency and democratic accountability. It would mark the dawn of a new era in human politics and give a voice to the world’s citizens.
The Pan-African Parliament, a continental parliamentary body, was established in 2004. It was constituted following the 1991 treaty establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty). It follows the early European model in which 'representatives are elected by the legislatures of their Member State, rather than being elected directly by the people'. It currently enjoys advisory and consultative powers.
Despite its' lack of legislative powers the Pan-African Parliament resolved, on 12th May 2016, that:
the African Union and its Member States support the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) and to take necessary steps to advance this goal at the UN by triggering and initializing a preparatory intergovernmental process for the purpose of establishing a UNPA.
UK Column researchers have discovered that South African shadow Minister for International Relations Stevens Mokgalapa MP and Dr. Heinrich C. Volmink MP, both of the Democratic Alliance, are listed as supporters on the website of the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly Campaign, alongside nine other South African MPs.
The United Nations Parliamentary Assembly Campaign describes itself as 'a global network that advocates democratic representation of the world’s citizens at the UN and the institutions of global governance'.
United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and Inter-Parliamentary Union to be Complementary
At a meeting which took place between 4-5 November 2008 at the European Parliament in Brussels, the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) concluded that the 'proposed UNPA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) would be complementary institutions'.
For readers unfamiliar with the Inter-Parliamentary Union here are a few extracts from our 2012 article 'And You Still Think They Work For You?'.
The IPU is the international organization of Parliaments. It was created in 1889 on the initiative of two parliamentarians, William Randal Cremer (United Kingdom) and Frédéric Passy (France). In June 1889 the founding act of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference of the Union was signed. This provided the origins for today’s form of institutionalised multilateral co-operation and advocated the establishment of corresponding institutions at the inter-governmental level. In 1919 the League of Nations is established some 30 years after the IPU. By 1943 an IPU meeting in London established a European Sub-Committee. This Sub Committee is now known as the 12+ Group within which the British Group Inter Parliamentary Union (BGIPU) operates at Multilateral Assemblies.
In 2012 the website of the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (BGIPU) revealed that:
'The main stakeholders in the work of the BGIPU include the Speakers and senior officials of both Houses of the UK Parliament, all British Parliamentarians, APPGs and Inter-Parliamentary Groups of the British Parliament, particularly the UK Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association'.
A recent visit to their website revealed the 123 page Global Parliamentary report 'The Changing Nature of Parliamentary Representation'.
Amongst the delegates at the 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Hanoi (Viet Nam) held between the 28th March and the 1st April 2015, we discovered Rt Hon Alistair Burt (Leader of the delegation) House of Commons (Conservative); Robert Walter, House of Commons (Conservative); Lord Frank Judd (Labour); Lord David Chidgey (Liberal Democrat); Lord Richard Faulkner of Worcester (Labour) & Baroness Gloria Hooper CMG (Conservative).
These individuals may publicly declare that the stand on opposite sides of the political argument, but clearly they do not.
We have previously revealed that:
Lord Judd was a member of the Commission on Global Governance. The Commission was established in 1992 with the full support of United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. It produced a report containing many controversial proposals ‘Our Global Neighborhood’ in 1995. Sitting alongside Lord Judd in the Commission was Maurice Strong. Strong’s appointment as Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Environment and Development—best known as the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 had resulted in the UNs Agenda 21 programme being implemented by all states belonging to the UN system of Governance including the UK.
The Committee for a Democratic UN, World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy and the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
The Committee for a Democratic UN 'was established in 2003 and is based in Berlin'. It is 'a co-founder and serves as the host organization of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly that was launched in 2007'. Andreas Bummel chairs the board and is chief executive of the CDUN. He is also director of the international Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly and has been a a Council Member of the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy in New York since 1998. Brummel is the author of the 60 page report 'The Composition of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations - A Background Paper of the Committee for a Democratic U.N'.
Other articles published by the CDUN include
* Creating a World Parliamentary Assembly by Joseph E. Schwartzberg, 2012
* The Case for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly by Dieter Heinrich, 2010
The World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy describes itself as a 'non-profit, non-partisan organisation committed to the realisation of global peace and justice through the development of democratic institutions and the application of international law'. The activities of its' member organisations paint a slightly different picture. For example, they claim that:
World Federalist Movement Member Organizations (MOs) around the world are working on diverse issues such as raising support for the International Criminal Court, strengthening the European Constitution, creating a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, and reducing small arms trafficking.
The WFM-IGP Executive Committee is chaired by Keith Best. Best practiced common law as a barrister until 1987 prior to being elected to Parliament as PM for Anglesey/Ynys Môn. He is now the Chairman of the Conservative Action for Electoral Reform. He previously held the posts of Treasurer of the Parliamentary Group for World Government, and Chairman of the International Council of Parliamentarians for Global Action,
Funders for the World Federalist Movement include:-
- The Commonwealth of Australia
- The European Union
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
- Open Society Foundation (George Soros)
Members and former Members of Parliament supporting the campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
The original UK launch of the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly was 'hosted and chaired by Rt Hon Clare Short MP, former Labour Cabinet Minister for International Development at the House of Commons on Wednesday 2 May 2007. Other prominent supporters include:
Sir Vincent (Vince) Cable, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (Liberal Democrat). He lost his seat at the 2015 general election and was knighted in the 2015 Dissolution Honours List. It has already been established that almost 30 years ago Vince Cable helped to produce the Brundtland report Our Common Future which launched the concept of 'Sustainable development'. It is this concept that is deeply embedded in the original United Nations Agenda 21, and subsequent, Agenda 2030 programmes. Agenda 21 is 'a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which humanity impacts on the environment'.
Walter Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem. Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife from 1987 to 2015 and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Dr. John Alderdice of Knock. Former Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998–2004, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1987–1998, and since 1996 has sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat.
The Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat). Foster was MP for Bath between 1992 and 2015 when he stood down. He acted as Deputy Chief Whip representing the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett. Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University. Hon President, Child Poverty Action Group.
Gavin Strang, MP for Edinburgh East 1970-2010 (Labour). Former Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Group for World Government, United Kingdom.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Labour) who was the Opposition Spokesperson for the Department of International Development in the House of Lords between 2010 and 2013. Between 1995 and 2009 she was an MEP. Between 2001 - 2009 she held the position of Co-President, EU-Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly for the European Parliament.
The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is 'an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states, with all of them, save Cuba, signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the "ACP-EC Partnership Agreement" which binds them to the European Union. There are 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific'.
To the best of my knowledge no British media organisation has notified the public of the existence of this trans-national organisation which extends the reach and breadth of the undemocratic European Union.
UK Members of the European Parliament supporting the campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
Dr. Charles Tannock, MEP for London (Conservative). He is currently a full member of the Foreign Affairs Committee - where he is also the European Conservatives and Reformist Group Co-ordinator (Spokesman) and he is also a full member of the Human Rights Subcommittee.
David Martin, MEP for Scotland (Labour). He was Vice President (1989 - 2004) and latterly Senior Vice-President of the European Parliament with special responsibility for relations with national parliaments and parliaments of constitutional regional Assemblies.
Sajjad Karim. MEP for the Northwest (Conservative). Sajjad was appointed as the Legal Affairs Spokesperson for the Conservative Group in the European Parliament in 2009 and was reappointed to this front bench position in June 2014 following the European Elections.
Jean Lambert, MEP for London (Green Party).
Individuals supporting the campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly
Featured individual supporters from the UK include:
Sir Brian Urquhart, Under-secretary-General of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs (1971-1985). He is a patron of the Federal Trust. The Federal Trust, a registered charity, is 'a research institute studying the interactions between regional, national, European and global levels of government' which was founded in 1945'.
Dame Anita Roddick † , Founder of The Body Shop, member of the Demos think tank’s advisory council, and, co-founder of Common Purpose.
Peter Tatchell, Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation. Advocate of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom and global justice, UK.
Emma Thompson, Actress; Academy Award for Best Actress 1992 ("Howards End"), climate change activist, UK.
George Monbiot, environmental and political activist who write a weekly column in the Guardian. According to him the Campaign against Climate Change 'is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but against ourselves'. In 2007, to coincide with the launch of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Mombiot had an article published by the Guardian 'The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a World Parliament'. He wrote:
Those who claim, like the British Eurosceptics, that regional or global decision-making is unnecessary are living in a world of make-believe. No political issue now stops at the national border. All the most important forces - climate change, terrorism, state aggression, trade, flows of money, demographic pressures, the depletion of resources - can be addressed only at the global level.
Nearly a decade later the majority of the British electorate voiced their strong disagreement with 'regional or global decision making'. They voted for an independent and Sovereign United Kingdom.
Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London, founder of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, advisor and supporter of the Global Parliament of Mayors.
In the two weeks that have passed since the EU referendum result, the Labour Party is in meltdown, the Prime Minister has resigned and the Conservative Party are focussing on a leadership campaign which might take a further two months to resolve. On the global horizon the UK Column are aware of two further important events.
From the 10th-16th September 2016, mayors representing over 100 cities large and small, from North and South, developed and emerging, will convene at the World Forum in The Hague to establish the governance legitimacy of the Global Parliament of Mayors.
Between the 20th and 30th October 2016, the fourth Global Week of action for a World Parliament takes place. During the week 'citizens and civil society groups around the world will organize activities and events to call for the establishment of a world parliament'.
Conclusion
We have, since 2012, been continuously warning that Multiple Paths Lead to One World Government. The Global Parliament of Mayors is potentially a horizontal pathway through which global laws could be applied to the individual. Whilst the UK electorate's attention is being deliberately distracted by the political manoeuvres of those desperate to overturn the Brexit vote the long march towards Global Government continues.
