Who Cares about the EU?
Does anyone hold the Labour party to its 1983 manifesto, once dubbed as the Longest suicide note in history? No. Why? Because events have superseded that commitment. If you want to know why politicians won't answer the question these days, it's because that answer will be dug up and thrown at them, out of context, years hence.
In 2007, writing in the Sun in the run-up to an expected snap election David Cameron said
Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiationsThese negotiations" eventually became the Lisbon treaty, but this pledge was not intended to cover an already ratified treaty after a 2010 election, because it was made in the expectation of being able to do something about the ratification process as Prime Minister, after a General Election in 2007. Perhaps this quote from the Evening Standard indicates that some people got it at the time.
Mr Cameron repeated his pledge to hold a referendum and campaign for a No vote if the Tories come to power in an early election that takes place before Parliament has ratified the new treatyAs we know, Gordon got the jitters and the treaty was ratified after a shameful display by the Europhile parties who stitched the process up, and then Gordon tried to hide away from the cameras while signing it. Because Gordon Brown is a cunt.
Did David Cameron do everything in his power to offer a referendum on Lisbon? Yes. Did the Liberal "Democrats" and Labour renege on their manifesto commitments to offer a referendum? Yes. Can Cameron, once PM "un-ratify" the Treaty of Lisbon? No.
So... the usual suspects for whom the EU is politics (both 'phile and 'phobe) will accuse David Cameron of Mendacity, whilst ignoring the disgusting dishonesty of Brown and Clegg (especially Clegg), and do so because in their eyes, Cameron can do nothing good. The DKs of this world are simply looking for evidence to fit their stupid hypothesis that Cameron is just as bad as Labour. In reality it is they who are being mendacious. Context is important. If you want politicians to speak like anything approaching normal english, in a way accessible to non-policy wonks, then you have to accept that when you're writing in the Sun, the context matters, and Cameron's actions since then have been in the spirit of that pledge, which shouldn't need to caveat every clause. whilst having a regard to the reality of the situation. A Sun Leader should not be written by a lawyer.
While we're on the subject, Europe is such a non issue.
80% of our laws DO NOT come from 'Europe'. We are not about to get subsumed into a European superstate, nor are we going to join the Euro any time soon. Sure, I don't want an EU president any more than you do, nor do I want a High representative, or the EU to have legal personality. The paserelle clause is an enabling act, and the EU costs us money, lots of it, but so does your average British chav, and at least the EU comes with some benefits - free movement of people is a good thing. And our own politicians are not exactly immune from creating enabling acts themselves. And in any case we can leave the EU at any point - Lisbon itself allows for this, so it's not exactly the soviet empire and Belgian tanks are about to roll over protesters in Trafalgar Square. As a result, I have no doubt that at some point in the next decade we will get our 'in or out' referendum, especially if you believe the EU fanatics who seem to think the next intake of Conservative MPs are a bunch of Better Off Out supporting Europhobic right-wingers. So in 2020 or so, I will troop down to the polling station and vote as often as I can get away with for our withdrawal. But I don't let it get to me. If you want to know why Britain is rubbish at the moment, it is because of useless Politicians who are entirely home Grown - not Europe, which concentrates instead on genocide in Africa. Let's get rid of the people who have done the damage here, Gordon Brown and his rabble, rather than blame it all on the dirty foreigners.
Because whether you're calling Dave a right-wing extremist who's losing influence in Europe, or a Blu-Labour sell-out closet europhile, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT. And you know what? The British people are right.
The EU? Meh.
3 immoderate opinions:
Jackart, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Just because you don't want the EU to be a superstate, doesn't mean it isn't.
Just because you don't care if Britain is subsumed into it against the will of the British people, doesn't mean nobody else cares.
Your comments about Cameron and his cast-iron pledge may be realistic, nuanced, and sophisticated, but the fact is that he made the pledge, he didn't word it in the weaselly way you suggest he meant, and now he's abandoned it.
You cannot believe a single word any of them says. You cannot. Five more years of Gordon Brown would not be worse, because with Lisbon in place, neither of them will be running the country anyway, the unelected EU commission will be.
I don't know if the 80% figure is arithmetically precise, but it doesn't matter because whatever those bureacrats do automatically takes precedence over anything our "government" can do anyway.
Principles do matter. We've been betrayed, yet again. Our 200-year democratic experiment is over. It worked too well, so it will not be repeated. We lost.
I do not support the Conservatives. I do not have much respect for Cameron as a potential Prime Minister.
However, I agree - criticism of Cameron is unfair. He has not reneged on anything. He set out his stall for what he would do if he were elected. The circumstances have changed and he is now changing his policy in the light of those circumstances. Completely reasonable.
The ONLY people who have lost out as a result of this are Euro-sceptics who have donated money or their time to the Conservative party over the past few years. I have little sympathy for them as this situation (and the Conservative Party's reaction to it) was a risk that was entirely forseeable.
Thanks for the link to the Liberal conspiracy article on the number of laws that come from Europe. Very enlightening.
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