We must have the Mussolinis round to dinner, David!
We can view David Cameron’s decision to withdraw from the European People’s Party (EPP) in two ways. The easiest (and to many the most desirable) way would be to view it as “business as usual” for the Tory party. A continuation of the backwards looking, anti-European, almost UKIPian attitude taken by (nearly all) Cameron’s predecessors. Of course this is popular amongst many of the party faithful, who would either like to invade France or buy up enough holiday homes to prevent the French from living there. It is also extremely popular amongst those who wish to see the Tory party wagon remain derailed forever. Those who would enjoy the sight of the Tory MEPs “sitting round the table on a weekly basis with these fascists and nutter” presumably the only ones left after the Tories have left the EPP. As Tony Blair put it “Jean-Marie Le Pen will sit there, Mrs. Mussolini will sit here, the Conservative party will sit there and, worst of all, Robert Kilroy-Silk will sit there.”
The second way to view this is as a political master plan. The Tory party and the EPP have always had an uneasy partnership and disagree on a lot of policies. The EPP, for example, funds federalist campaigns; something that the Tories don’t quite agree with for some reason! By leaving the EPP, Cameron has made a statement that he wants to look at the European Union differently. He wants to form new allegiances with other parties who share the euro-skeptic views of the Tories. Last week he opened his arms to the liberals hoping to form a grand opposition to New Labour; his European plans are similar. Whether he succeeds or not is another question. With the problems Europe has faced in 2005 (2 failed referenda, failed reform of the CAP, one watered down budget), there should have been a period of reflection and debate about the EU’s future direction. This has not happened. At least Cameron’s willing to think about things differently.
June 8th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
[...] William Hague is to outline the Tory policy on the EU tonight. This is what he’s going to say. Looks like they’ve decided to move away from their “hardline” approach on the EU towards New Labour’s “heart of Europe” policy. Vox Polis will be there tonight to ask some difficult questions about the removal from the EPP. We were originally favourable to the idea but when we see who they’d have to team up with (fascists, populists and homophobics) it looks like the idea isn’t going to work. It looks like the Tories agree (Telegraph article today). This is an important time for Europe. One year ago the EU Constitution was rejected by French and Dutch voters, in an unprecedented shock to the process of European integration. Treaties have been rejected in referendums before, but never by two countries, let alone by Member States from the founding Six.The impact of the shock was matched by the importance of the document the referendums rejected. It was not the first Treaty to signify a great change to the European Union, but it was intended to be a turning point. Quite apart from the changes to voting or EU competences, the attributes it would have given the EU - legal personality, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, a foreign minister, the fact that it was a Constitution, not a simply a Treaty – would have revolutionised the EU. As the German Europe minister at the time described it, it was ‘the birth certificate of the United States of Europe’, or, in the Belgian Prime Minister’s words, the ‘capstone’ of a ‘federal state’. [...]