The Staggers

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Cameron goes to the crease with a bat broken by his own party

The real division in the Tory ranks is between those who know how impractical confrontation in Brussels would be, and those who don't care.

By Rafael Behr Published 08 December 2011 16:04

As is customary before European summit meetings, political leaders from the European People's Party group in the European parliament met yesterday. This, remember, is the collective from which David Cameron withdrew the Tories in 2009, honouring a pledge he had made in order to win eurosceptic backing for his leadership bid in 2005. It seemed like a small price to pay then. Awkwardly, it now means the British prime minister is absent from an occasion that will include French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Herman van Rompuy, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and a brace of other EU leaders.

I've written before about how the decision to pull out of the EPP has caused more trouble for Cameron than he anticipated. What is interesting now is how little credit the Tory leader gets for it among the very MPs it was meant to appease. The eurosceptics bank concessions and then move on to demand more.

The same is true of the European Union Act that was pushed through parliament earlier this year, supposedly putting a "referendum lock" on any future EU deals that might involve a transfer of sovereignty to Brussels. This was meant to be compensation to the Tory party for Cameron's reneging on a pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. He was terribly sorry that the treaty had been ratified, but could not unpick it and would make sure no such treaty was ever passed again.

Of course, when he formulated that position he didn't anticipate a round of treaty negotiations this parliament. Everyone thought that Lisbon marked the end of institutional reform for a generation. The Act was carefully worded so that ministers get to say what constitutes a transfer of sovereignty and so retain substantial control over whether or not there should be a referendum. Backbench sceptics weren't terribly impressed by that and, not surprisingly, many seem prepared to ignore the letter of the new law. Their view, apparently shared by Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Patterson, is that anything that emerges from the current summit is likely to amount to a new constitutional settlement between the UK and Brussels and so will eventually have to be put to the country in a referendum.

But the idea of Cameron asking the eurozone countries to put their rescue plans on hold while he holds a plebiscite is, frankly, absurd. In theory, Cameron could sign a treaty and ask parliament to ratify it and secure rebel Tory votes with a promise of a referendum later, but it would have to be an in/out vote.

The essential problem is that the sceptics want action that will signal clear and prompt disengagement from the EU, and any action of that kind ends up harming the UK's diplomatic position and negotiating clout. It is easy to promise "repatriation" and even a referendum in opposition, but in government the sheer impracticality becomes clear. Even some very eurosceptic Tories, such as William Hague, have found that ministerial office dulls their appetite for confrontation. They need to get things done with their counterparts in other countries. The hardline sceptics see this as going native or being "captured" by Brussels.

As I wrote in my column this week, frothy Tory euroscepticism makes it ever harder for ministers to build the kinds of alliances they need to promote UK interests in Europe. Countries that might support the British position - sceptical of institutional centralisation, seeking liberalising reform of the single market - need reassurance that we are serious about making the whole project work and not hovering by the exit or, worse, trying to sabotage the whole thing.

The painful reality that David Cameron must confront is that a number of his MPs are pursuing a strategy that pays no heed to the practical demands of running a government in the midst of a serious international economic crisis. To borrow Geoffrey Howe's famous metaphor, the UK prime minister is going out to the Brussels crease with a bat broken by his own backbenchers.

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Tags: Europe Conservatives David Cameron

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15 comments

Fri, 2011-12-09 00:29 — Robin Pearce (not verified)

The significance of Geographical location has been hugely exagerated by Europhiles. We can do business with the world. Buy from the cheapest & sell for the highest. What difference does it make how close the country is.

Market places exist in spite of Eurocrats & politicians... not because of them.

Here's a few of the reasons the electorate should be incensed that Cameron refused us a referendum on the EU.

EU =

1] Evermore over crowding.

2] A troubled currency we are insnared with

3] Fish thrown back into the North sea even though they've died in the nets, once quotas are reached for a particular species.

4] Language problems. Example, my mother in law is in a nursing home on the IOW staffed by East Europeans. She can hardly understand them & the can hardly understand her. Yet good communication is essential in giving good care.

5] High levels of crime committed by nomads who can wander from one EU country to another now including the UK now our borders are freely open to 400 million people.

6] Child Beggars, sex traffickers & pick pockets from Romania.

7] More competition for insufficient homes & scarce jobs.

8] More road congestion

9] 10% of our orchards bulldozed into the ground cos the Eurocrats decided there's over production of apples in the Euro zone, regarless of whether we happen to like Brit apples !

10] Huge cost of £30 an hour translators in courtrooms & classrooms disrupting the education of our kids.

11] Fat cat 'job for life plus index linked pension' eurocrats who feast on our taxes but produce nothing but red tape in return.

12] £46,000,000 a day we give to the EU & get nothing but dictats in return. It will be £41 billion over the next 5 years ! Twice what it was for the last 5 years under the previous government. Money we desperately need for our schools & our hospitals etc

13] It's a myth we need to be in the EU to trade with Europe. The Swiss do very nicely trading with Europe whilst at the same time enjoying the freedoms of not being in the EU.Ironically EU red tape makes it harder to do business with the EU. Yet we voted originally only for a common market to supposedly make trade easier. What have we got instead.... we are heading towards a republic of Europe where we lose sovereignty.

14] We've lost the right to make our own laws.

15] The latest dictat from Brussels means companies like Tescos have to reduce the number of part time workers. Regardless of whether it's suits them & their employees such as mums wanting to only work part time.

16] East Europeans claiming child benefits for children that aren't even in the UK.

17] Our legal system hamstrung with human rights legislation issuing forth from UN ELECTED EU judges, with terrorist bombers having more human rights than their victims. Also in respect of repatriating criminals.

18] The accountants refuse to sign off the EU accounts because of huge discrpancies & money that can't be accounted for.

19] In Southampton we lost the Dimplex factory because they got a fat subsidy from Brussels to move to Ireland. Bournemouth lost the Johnson & Johnson factory too. It's all part of the Pol Pot EU philosophy that everywhere has to be equal. Namely it's not enough the Ireland should remain a green & pleasant farming land.
No... instead Ireland has to have by dictat exactly the same number of factories per sq mile as everywhere else. Uniformity rules according to the Autocratic Euro crats. This must be going on nationwide. These are just two examples I happen to know of because they are local.
God knows how many other jobs we've been robbed of by Brussels.
So we pay a Euro subsidy of £46m per day, some of which goes to rob us of decent productive jobs here !!!!!!!!!!!To add to the farce, some of the trainees that came from Ireland to learn the ropes in the Johnson & Johnson factory before it moved to Ireland, didn't even turn up for half the training sessions cos they'd been out on the booze every night. Then some of them decided they didn't even want to go back to Ireland.
Laughable if it wasn't such a waste of our money !
No businessman in their right mind would move for the sake of it using their own money. But when some little job for life bureaucrats in brussels who couldn't run a whelk stall, throw our money at this sort of thing. Well how can any rational person possible think the EU is a good thing.
It's the same kind of insanity that happened under Stalin.
We live in the EUSSR !

Fri, 2011-12-09 02:02 — Anthony (not verified)

@Robimn Pearce, well said . that's the most comprehensive and well thought out piece of writing on the e.u i have read on the new statesman message boards. It's a complete myth that 3 million jobs rely on the e.u , the only jobs that would be lost are the British bureaucrats in Brussels

Trade would continue because it would be against world trade organisation rules and anyway we run a trade deficit with Europe so if they did put up trade barriers it would hurt them just as much if not more. It's complete fear spreading by little Europeans.

There's a big wide world out there but all the little Europeans are only interested in is a declining continent like Europe which is becoming protectionist and withdrawing into itself. I say let them, let them stifle themselves with bullshit regulations.

Vote UKIP for freedom and direct democracy by referendum

Fri, 2011-12-09 08:02 — Luddite (not verified)

So what would the left do? Total capitulation, the political-left may hate the City, but the City remains golden goose, which actually pays for large parts of the public sector, after all you can’t expect 8 million blue collar workers to do all the work.

"But the idea of Cameron asking the Eurozone countries to put their rescue plans on hold while he holds a plebiscite is", frankly, absurd!! So when did democracy become absurd?.

Fri, 2011-12-09 09:26 — matthew fox (not verified)

Luddite your totally absurbed. What happened to your " Worldwide Economic Crisis?"

Thu, 2011-12-08 16:59 — nourredine (not verified)

Will the tory party division be more apparent after this wee-end in Brussels?

Thu, 2011-12-08 17:04 — Des Demona (not verified)

@ nourredine

'wee-end'

It may be a spelling mistake but what a great synopsis.

Thu, 2011-12-08 17:21 — nourredine (not verified)

@des demona,
Well spoted, thank you.

Thu, 2011-12-08 17:23 — Adam Gray (not verified)

"But the idea of Cameron asking the eurozone countries to put their rescue plans on hold while he holds a plebiscite is, frankly, absurd."

Yes, utterly ludicrous of the European elite to ask the little people who they will be subjugating whether they approve of their appalling project.

The truly, frankly, absurd are the gimps on the "progressive" wing of politics who either always supported this superstate utopia or are too weak to stand against it.

Thu, 2011-12-08 17:29 — C Baker

Why if the UK is so looked down upon in europe, do the others still want us in it so very very much?

We talk asthough it is Germany doing us a favour. The only reason Merkel is in charge at the moment is because, if the eu fails, everyone will get better, but Germany will come off far worse. Germany wants us to prop them up. Merkel wants the financial sector in europe and wants to take our business, or for us to bring our customer database so to speak to europe.

Thu, 2011-12-08 18:13 — nourredine (not verified)

@C Baker,
If France goes bust it's Britain next due to heavy investments in british banks.
3millions jobs in Britain depend on Europe.
40%of trade are with Europe.
The youth of tomorrow will definitly travel in Europe and the reste.
Britain appears to be looked down because not wanting to join the Ruro but want only the single market, that was ok until now the crisis is too deep for not having every body on bord.
Cameron is divided between his party, the electorate and the europeen countries.
I think it is his turn to decide what other prime minister have delayed since the formation of Europe.

Thu, 2011-12-08 18:28 — swatantra nandanwar

These Tory Skeptiks are sending Dave naked into the Conference Chamber set on a course of self destruction.

Thu, 2011-12-08 18:31 — Tesco Shelf Stacker (not verified)

@nourredine "3millions jobs in Britain depend on Europe".

Millions of jobs in the EU also depend on the UK. Even if Britain did leave the EU - those countries would still need to trade with us. In fact we would continue trading under a Free Trade Agreement, just as Switzerland, Norway, USA, South Korea and many other countries do. The rest of the world trades successfully with the EU from outside - why should't we? If Britain was to leave the EU, few if any of those three million jobs' you mentioned would actually disappear. Basically, this is just a Little Europeanist myth.

Thu, 2011-12-08 19:12 — nourredine (not verified)

@ Tesco Shelf Stacker
As it is with a pound devalued at 25%, we have over 2 million unnemployed,taking Britain of the Europe will add more unnemployment, more misery,the Euro stronger will make inflation in Britain higher.
And if the pound inflates it will affect export,more loss than gain,
so we need Cameron to play very well to achieve the best for Britain, he has no choice.