As such Mr. Cameron has kicked the EU issue into the long grass as it currently stands and the eurosceptic majority of the party have accepted this, for now. They have accepted, erroneously in my opinion, that a major clash with the EU will do nothing for their chances and assuming that the leadership really is eurosceptic (which I highly doubt) then they must have made very careful calculations as to what their future policy on the EU might be. Sure it is a great soundbite to say that 'never again shall power be passed to the EU without a referendum' - it sounds great, it really does, but it is a soundbite with a clever calculation. It assumes quite rightly that most people have no idea how much power Brussels already has and that there is simply not any real power left for Brussels to get once Lisbon comes into force on the 1st of December. Most people are not well versed in EU law - how could they be? They are not familiar with the principles of 'engrenage' (gearing of power) nor the principle of 'Acquis communautaire' (the power which has been required by the EU stays with the EU). And one cannot blame them either for these are remarkably boring and difficult concepts which only a few master; eurocrats, bureaucrats and eurosceptics not politicians (if that were so then phrases like "British jobs for British workers" could have been avoided).
Cameron's policy is thus naive and quite foolhardy for he knows that his policy, as it stands, will not work - he cannot claw back powers for that would require the explicit consent of the other 26 nations (QMV system). This is on the same scale as the Lisbon Treaty not being the Constitution; everyone knew it was yet the government kept denying it. Well, Cameron and co. will be the government in a few months time and they will be challenged in one years time at the very least, as to what has been going on with their EU policy. We will see that all the bullet points in the policy; the referendum pledge on future powers, the ratchet clause approval of parliament before usage, social and employment law recall and the reversal of 'acquis communautaire' were all in vain. He has also said that if his demands are not met he might hold a referendum on something - this something is the very core of this post for that 'something' could turnout to be far worse for the Tories than what they now think they have cleverly dodged.
If Cameron had given a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty he would have a strong position to go to the EU with. With his grand standing respect for EU Law ("It is law, we cannot stop this treaty as little as we can stop the sun from shining") he could have used the same principle for himself, if not all 27 nations have ratified the treaty it cannot become law. Labour ratified the treaty but the British parliament runs on the long standing and very much respected tradition that no parliament is bound by another; what Tony and Gordon did is not law for David. What is more nations nearly always only pay lip-service to the treaties they sign in the name of their people. The USA withdrew from the anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001 - certainly a lot more important for global peace than the Lisbon treaty. Repudiating a treaty is a real act and not inanimate as the leadership appears to think. Yet Mr. Cameron does not have enough 'chutzpah' to pull of such a move for he might in all his haste upset someone and that he could not bring himself to do, now that he has relaunched the Tory party as 'Compassionate Conservatism'.
This is as sure as day follows night; Dave cannot accomplish any of the subclauses of his EU policy. It is not possible and the other member states will not stand for it. Hence he will, if we are to take him for his word (the irony...), have to hold a referendum. But, and this is critical, what would that referendum be on? The Lisbon treaty? In or Out? Multiple Option referendum (In/Out, Rejoin EFTA, status quo, full EU membership, Schengen and the Euro and other possible options)? This person's humble opinion is that anything but a wholesale referendum on the EU is futile. We need to know where we stand if we are to be assimilated into another nation, if we consent then fine I will lay down my sword and go with the flow but if we reject this proposal then 'out' must mean out.
For now Mr. Cameron has dodged the issue, it is for another day, but while he is quietly gathering his powers to win the election the eurosceptic faction is growing very much stronger as well and is only helped by the Tory apathetic position on the EU. As Mr. Cameron is ignoring the issue right now one day when he does find himself without options he will have painted himself into a corner and there is nothing he can do but ask for an In/Out referendum. He does not want the UK to adopt the Euro (see their manifesto if you bother to take it for its word) yet QMV of Brussels tells him that we have to. Or we do not want to be part of Schengen yet QMV of Brussels tells him that we have to. If he has such respect for EU law than he will either go with what Brussel says and face annihilation back home or he will need to call a referendum on the UK's very untenable position in the EU.
"'Rise like Lions after slumberIn unvanquishable number,Shake your chains to earth like dewWhich in sleep had fallen on you -Ye are many - they are few."-Percy Bysshe Shelley
In recent days Peer Steinbrück and Thilo Sarrazin have featured in Ambrose Evans-Prichard’s articles on this website: the first [the German Finance Minister] made a violent verbal attack on Britain and the second, [an official of the Bundesbank], an even more violent attack on Turkish immigrants in Berlin. One that made Enoch Powell look like a pussycat, although Sarrazin was gracious enough to say that he preferred Jews to the Turks.
I didn’t notice the Labour Party or the BBC responding to them because, after all, Europe and Europeans are perfect aren’t they? In fact, Germans foaming at the mouth are nothing to worry about. It’s inconceivable that just because they have a tradition of exploding every fifty years, or so, they will do it again because we’re all in the European Union now, aren’t we? And, heaven knows, it’s inconceivable that the Euro is turning out to be an instrument of German hegemony of which Hitler would have been proud. Perish the thought.
I live a lot of my time in the heart of Europe and people are somewhat similar everywhere, of course. Where they differ is in what one might call ’shared atavism’. It is obviously easy for people in the BBC and the Labour Party to pretend that this doesn’t exist. Maybe that is because our ‘ancestral pattern’ is to keep the hell away from Europe. About once per century, we ourselves go mad and get involved. The last person to make a reasonable fist of that was The Duke of Wellington [sorry, but I think WWI and WWII were a disaster for Britain]. He, however, is not a figure in European history books whereas Napoleon is still universally a hero.
When Europeans think of ‘the English’ they often have only a narrow economic view of what Britain stands for. Democracy, so hard-won and so longstanding in Britain, has astonishingly shallow roots in swathes of Europe. Authoritarian elites using vicious Kafkaesque bureaucracies to control the serfs are absolutely run-of-the-mill, however. The next time you are staying in Prague and are woken at 6am by someone trundling dustbins around behind your hotel, pop down and ask why they get up so infernally early; you’ll be told with some pride that the Emperor Ferdinand told the Czechs to be early risers [I'm not joking about this, although you'll need to brush up your Czech first].
The BBC and the Labour Party have been allowed to create a caricature of English nationalism. Enoch Powell, who was a professor of Greek at age 25 and rose from private to be the youngest brigadier in the British Army, was pilloried for saying what probably 80% of Englishmen believed, and believe, to be true. G.K. Chesterton said:
“Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget;
For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.”
Daniel, you are an amiable soul with clever ideas. Your article displays a commendable desire not to ruffle feathers. But I think that the people of England are about to speak. If Cameron will not give them their say about the EU, their voice will be heard as votes for UKIP at the next general election. And as a result of that Cameron & co will likely end up as mere footnotes in that thick volume entitled: ‘Failures of Nerve in British Political Life’.