| Pure Politics |
|---|
| Neither Canada nor Mexico has seen its sovereignty eroded, though both have prospered mightily through membership. |
WILL the numerically insignificant Vichyite-Europhile wing of the Conservative Party succeed in undermining the far larger democratic-national wing? The struggle for the Tory soul and organisation has proceeded apace this week. Three days ago, we described how leading federalists such as Kenneth Clarke are seeking to ambush William Hague at the annual conference - to push him into softening his opposition to the abolition of the pound. The following day, John Gummer, another former minister, now reincarnated as chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe (one of the federalist groupuscules), wrote a letter to this newspaper averring that "we want to be partners in Europe, rather than the 51st state of America". And in today's issue, our political editor, George Jones, describes how Euro-sceptics in the shadow cabinet will urge William Hague to withdraw the official status of the Conservative Group for Europe (CGE) if it persists in its opposition to his policies.
Curious as it may seem, we are grateful to Mr Gummer in particular for rendering to the public an unintended service. His letter not only exposed the ideological anti-Americanism that lurks not so very far beneath the surface of the Tories' Europhile fringe, but it also revealed a wilful ignorance about the Atlantic alternative to a federal European destiny. For example, if Britain did join the North American Free Trade Area, the last thing which it would become is the "51st state". Neither Canada nor Mexico has seen its sovereignty eroded in this entity, though both have prospered mightily through membership. That is because America would not itself concede any powers to an EU-like supra-national entity, nor would it expect others within such a trade association to do so. Indeed, tiny Israel, which is far more dependent on the United States for its survival than any of these nations - to the tune of $3 billion per year in aid - regularly defies American administration policy on the Middle East. Yet notwithstanding the massive disparity in power between the two nations, the unelected US Supreme Court does not strike down laws made by the democratically elected Israeli Knesset - as EU institutions do to our Parliament. Free trade with America would be far less demanding in terms of controlling our own future than is the ever-more acquisitive EU. |
The unelected US Supreme Court does not strike down laws made by the democratically elected Israeli Knesset - as EU institutions do to our Parliament.
Above all, Mr Gummer's letter highlights the profound dishonesty of Europhile discourse. He claims that the CGE is "opposed to federalism" and backs the nation state. This is nonsense: in recent years the CGE has not opposed any of the significant accretions of EU power. If the CGE wants to pursue policies that will spell the end of our system of government as we know it, that is fine - but not as an affiliated body of the party. That anomalous status is a left-over of the days when Europe was a relatively undivisive issue within Tory ranks. But the CGE is not a non-partisan body such as the Conservative Medical Society or the Conservative Trade Unionists: it is a highly ideological cell which is about as neutral as (and more aggressively factional than) the Monday Club. Mr Hague should make it clear to Mr Gummer and his crew that he can no longer tolerate being placed in the Kafka-esque position of being patron of a body that campaigns against his own policies. If the CGE does not shape up, the new Conservative Board of Management should decline its request to reaffiliate. It cannot eat its cake and have it. | |
| front | local | mscl | music | news | sport |
| mail me | |||||