The European Parliament recently announced plans to introduce uniform vehicle licence number plates throughout Europe, meaning that the distinctive white and yellow British number plates will be discontinued and will in future be identical to all other European number plates.

Supporters of the European Union (and even some of those who are not) will no doubt say, so what, it makes sense and it’s only a small concession, it makes transport administration that much easier and why should the UK be different from the rest of Europe? As usual, anybody who questions or offers opposition is dismissed as being small minded or labelled a” little Englander”.

This is the standard response whenever EU plans are questioned or opposed and it’s been going on for over 40 years. Each small concession is like the drip from a tap, small and relatively insignificant by itself but eventually, ten thousand drips later, the trickle becomes a torrent and the whole dynamic has changed.

This is how The EU works. It is government by stealth. As this blog has pointed out many times in the past, it is both wrong and anti-democratic. And what will be next, driving on the same side of the road? Why should the British and Irish drive on the left while the rest of Europe drives on the right?

We must never lose sight of the fact that when we voted in the 1975 referendum we voted on whether or not to be part of a trading community called the European Economic Community. We were not asked whether or not we wished to completely lose our identity, our sovereignty and become part of a United States of Europe.

Our government and particularly our Euro MPs have to resist this proposal vigorously and without compromise. Better still, give us the further promised referendum. If we have that referendum and do vote to be part of a United States of Europe with all that that entails then, fair enough, at least it will have been a democratic decision and we can then no longer complain about the flood of legislation and regulation that carries away our independence.