A Tangled Web

The Tories and Europe: The Politics of Schizophrenia



Check out this latest twaddle from Conservative Party leader, Michael Howard. It is precisely the ongoing schizophrenic/Janus-faced Tory approach to the European Union that is propelling its grassroots towards the UKIP in the biggest mass desertion since George Custer's famous Seventh Cavalry Regiment lost 52% of its troops.



Mr Howard opens his piece with a broadside about the numerous negatives of the European Union. He then proceeds to tell us that the mighty Conservative Party (which actually played more than its part in deepening EU integration) would seek to re-take control over the many policy areas Britain has conceded down the years. It hasn't yet dawned on poor, deluded Michael that the increasingly transparent raison e'tre of the EU is to, firstly, create a de facto superstate and, secondly, establish the apparatus of supranational governance that transforms an alliance of independent states into a sovereign entity de jure. We are seeing the first signs of that with the debacle over the proposed EU Constitution. In other words, his Nirvana of being 'half-in, half-out' will not be an option that a clear majority of the remaining states will tolerate in the years ahead. It will have to be, in the words of the famous Small Faces song: 'All or Nothing.'



Membership of the EU is primarily a commitment to a political project, not an economic one. Michael Howard points out the British attributes of an impressive defence capability and economic robustness. Yet, like all 'pro-Europeans', he refuses to spell out exactly how those two positions would be adversely affected by a complete withdrawal; when all the evidence - especially on the economic front - demonstrates that the countries with the best economies remain, by volition, outside the club. However, if the UK left the European Union, it would certainly no longer have to pay an exorbitant fiscal price by way of contributions to the EU budget.



If the Conservative Party wishes to take the 'Janus' approach to European politics, it could steer of the 'two-faced con artistry' currently being sold to the electorate and remember that Janus was the Roman God of New Beginnings. Let the Tories articulate that new beginning by campaigning for an independent United Kingdom.