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  1. Politics
5 November 2009

Can Ken Clarke stay in this shadow cabinet?

Pro-European Tories must remain consistent -- and brave

By Mehdi Hasan

Will Straw’s Left Foot Forward blog draws our attention to this statement by the shadow business secretary and noted Tory Europhile Ken Clarke, in a report from 2003:

Ideas such as a “Supremacy Act”, asserting the superiority of British law or giving the British courts the power to overrule judgements of the European Court of Justice, undermine one of the fundamentals of the European Union . . . it is a recipe for anarchy.

How does that fit with David Cameron’s plan to introduce a “Sovereignty Bill”? And what will Clarke do when Cameron, Hague et al start trying to renegotiate the minutiae of various EU treaties, and are rebuffed as “autistic” by governments on the Continent? Will he be brave and resign from the cabinet? Part of me can’t wait for a Tory government — though I still hope we’ll avoid one and I tend to think that a hung parliament is still on the cards.

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