The MP for Rushcliffe [Nottingham] had agreed to stand down from the House of Commons, had the general election that cost Mrs May her majority not been held. If the last parliament had run to its full term, he would have retired with a good grace.
As things are, Ken Clarke ran again in the recent snap election, and is thus able to take a prominent part in the Brexit debate. As he emphasised in the Commons yesterday he has consistently supported the Tory party's pro-EU stance 'for the fifty years while I have been a member'. The Conservative Party was firmly in favour of remaining in the Union up to and during the referendum. Then Cameron ran away; and the party in a shuffling, sullen way declared that it was bound by the referendum result that almost none of them had expected.
As most of the party wallowed in stunned stupefaction, the tiny minority of Tory MPs who I call the headbanging Brexiteers stepped forward with the fantasy that the referendum vote obliges the UK to leave not only 'the European Union' but also the EEC and the European Economic Area. That this course of action would ruin the country - quickly - has not been considered by the loony right.The thousands of lorries that bring components to British factories from other factories located elsewhere in the common market, and take components the other way, are essential to the continuity of most of profitable UK industry, would be stopped dead in the event of a 'hard Brexit'. This would be calamitous: yet Mrs May is pressured to let it happen [largely, by letting David Davis spin out the sham negotiations until there is no time for rational argument to triumph].
Ken Clarke could be a powerful voice for commonsense; but instead he hankers after the Edward Heath vision of a Britain absorbed into Europe [thus removing the Irish question, as I mentioned the other day].
Britain must leave the corrupt sham democracy of the EU: that was the referendum result. But the economic benefits of the European Economic Area can be salvaged. It is tragic that Kenneth Clarke's obsession with a lost dream prevents such a competent political figure from pulling his weight at this crucial time.
Showing posts with label EEC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EEC. Show all posts
Wednesday, 15 November 2017
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Conservatives and Europe: More of the Same
Jacques Delors - one of the all-time heroes of the European Project - has taken the opportunity of a press interview to damn the present condition of the EU, the establishment of the euro under a fake prospectus with a plenitude of false data, and the dangers of the 'Germanic view' of financial discipline.
Meanwhile the German view is absolutely prevelant in negotiations on the future of the whole project: in the absence of the current expectation by market participants that Germany would in the end 'rescue' at least a core of the present eurozone there could not be any 'value' in the euro or in any bond issued in euros. The immensely effective and intellingent - though often obtuse - French state machine that Napoleon established on the remnants of Louis XIV's omnipotent bureaucracy has failed to marshal arguments that can trump Bundeskanzler Merkel's simple housekeeping economics [which is massiviely supported in Germany]; so France will agree to a German plan, with minor modification. The full concept of fiscal union will take years to implement, and will probably cause the eurozone to shed up to a dozen member states on the way, but it will eventually come about.
The little-used second verse of the British National Anthem says:
"May She defend our Laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save The Queen."
Successive premiers have advised the Queen to breach that sentiment, and probably her Coronation Oath; to which she has dutifully acquiesced in line with her clear understanding of her constitutional duty. It is probable that her Diamond Jubilee will be accompanied by the increase of the power of Brussels over Britain, even though the UK will not be joining the euro and may even be repatriating trivial aspects of labour law. In those terms it is a sad thought that in the jubilee year there will be almost no reference to the third verse of the anthem, in which is a plea that the Almighty will deal with those who would undermine the Monarchy:
"Confound their politicks," and "Frustrate their knavish tricks."
Cameron will not see his policy as a knavish trick. He will be persuaded - as his predecessors were - that there is no future for the United Kingdom outside the EU. So he will risk his already-tenuous popularity, and probably his position, in the pursuit of what he will perceive to be the national interest. It is not easy to imagine such a smooth operator adopting the role of a martyr, but it is probably going to be his fate; and his Liberal Democrat allies will do nothing to save him from the dilemma that will send him down that path.
Tory Eurosceptics demand 'repatriation' of powers from the eurorats of Brussels. This is such an arcane demand, in the current situation of the European Union, that the British Prime Minister can only make himself a figure of ridicule in his peers' eyes if he does anything significant to pursue their demands.This incredulity would apply not just to the leaders of the other EU members, but to Putin and Hu and Singh and Obama who are all being advised that a stable Europe is necessary for their own countries' economic success. So Cameron will go the way of Heath who lied systematically about the implications of EEC membership; of Thatcher, who talked tough yet signed up to the EEC becoming the EU; and of Major who flannelled and equivocated while he squeezed the UK into the Maastrich Treaty. Blair's 'offence' in agreeing to the tidying-up excercise of the Lisbon Treaty was relatively trivial and was popular in his own party. The last three Tory Prime Ministers eventually ignored grassroots opinion in their party to drag the United Kingdom more inextricably into the European system [whose surviving founders, not least Delors, now regard with despair]. Cameron will continue in that tradition, whetever rhetorical devices he may deploy while he diminishes his credibility among his rank-and-file as he is pushed along the lonely and painful route that lies ahead.
Meanwhile the German view is absolutely prevelant in negotiations on the future of the whole project: in the absence of the current expectation by market participants that Germany would in the end 'rescue' at least a core of the present eurozone there could not be any 'value' in the euro or in any bond issued in euros. The immensely effective and intellingent - though often obtuse - French state machine that Napoleon established on the remnants of Louis XIV's omnipotent bureaucracy has failed to marshal arguments that can trump Bundeskanzler Merkel's simple housekeeping economics [which is massiviely supported in Germany]; so France will agree to a German plan, with minor modification. The full concept of fiscal union will take years to implement, and will probably cause the eurozone to shed up to a dozen member states on the way, but it will eventually come about.
The little-used second verse of the British National Anthem says:
"May She defend our Laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save The Queen."
Successive premiers have advised the Queen to breach that sentiment, and probably her Coronation Oath; to which she has dutifully acquiesced in line with her clear understanding of her constitutional duty. It is probable that her Diamond Jubilee will be accompanied by the increase of the power of Brussels over Britain, even though the UK will not be joining the euro and may even be repatriating trivial aspects of labour law. In those terms it is a sad thought that in the jubilee year there will be almost no reference to the third verse of the anthem, in which is a plea that the Almighty will deal with those who would undermine the Monarchy:
"Confound their politicks," and "Frustrate their knavish tricks."
Cameron will not see his policy as a knavish trick. He will be persuaded - as his predecessors were - that there is no future for the United Kingdom outside the EU. So he will risk his already-tenuous popularity, and probably his position, in the pursuit of what he will perceive to be the national interest. It is not easy to imagine such a smooth operator adopting the role of a martyr, but it is probably going to be his fate; and his Liberal Democrat allies will do nothing to save him from the dilemma that will send him down that path.
Tory Eurosceptics demand 'repatriation' of powers from the eurorats of Brussels. This is such an arcane demand, in the current situation of the European Union, that the British Prime Minister can only make himself a figure of ridicule in his peers' eyes if he does anything significant to pursue their demands.This incredulity would apply not just to the leaders of the other EU members, but to Putin and Hu and Singh and Obama who are all being advised that a stable Europe is necessary for their own countries' economic success. So Cameron will go the way of Heath who lied systematically about the implications of EEC membership; of Thatcher, who talked tough yet signed up to the EEC becoming the EU; and of Major who flannelled and equivocated while he squeezed the UK into the Maastrich Treaty. Blair's 'offence' in agreeing to the tidying-up excercise of the Lisbon Treaty was relatively trivial and was popular in his own party. The last three Tory Prime Ministers eventually ignored grassroots opinion in their party to drag the United Kingdom more inextricably into the European system [whose surviving founders, not least Delors, now regard with despair]. Cameron will continue in that tradition, whetever rhetorical devices he may deploy while he diminishes his credibility among his rank-and-file as he is pushed along the lonely and painful route that lies ahead.
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