Cameron's EU speech may have 'disastrous outcome' for UK
by Sarah Ludford
David Cameron will tomorrow give his long-awaited speech – or for Twitter users #thespeech – on Britain's future in the European Union. Call it Providence, but I welcome the fact that, after the Algerian crisis understandably ruled out the planned event in Amsterdam last Friday, weather and diary issues now apparently dictate delivery in London. It should always have been designed for a London venue anyway – how about the House of Commons? – and not just because, according to his spokesman, "London fits best with the prime minister's schedule".
It is a curious tradition for Tory leaders to deliver major discourses on Europe not to a home audience but, except for the Brit 'hack-pack', to a foreign one: think Churchill in Zurich or Thatcher in Bruges. The advantages of debate targeted at the home audience can be demonstrated by a remarkable turnaround in British opinion as recorded by pollster YouGov. In the space of less than two months, a 21-point lead for leaving the EU – of 51 per cent to 30 per cent, recorded in late November – has been replaced by a six-point lead now for remaining a member, by 40 per cent to 34 per cent. This coincides with a period of intense debate about Europe and one in which the pro-European case has at last been expressed and heard.
The British public has, for the first time for many years, heard about how one in 10 jobs and £3,300 a year income of each household in the United Kingdom depend on EU membership. And about how Britain has become one of the most influential members of the EU as the creator and driver of the single market; instrumental in shaping Europe's foreign policy and burgeoning defence role; and with a major part in developing EU police and counter-terrorism cooperation.
As I understand it, Cameron is making this speech partly as prime minister, and therefore on behalf of the coalition government, and partly as Conservative party leader. It is obvious that Liberal Democrats will support the part in which he is expected to say that the UK should stay in the EU with positive engagement, that the single market should be deepened and completed, that the Union should be open to global trade, that competiveness and innovation should be prioritised and the EU budget should be reformed. If he talks about EU democracy, he should not do so without calling for an end to the financially and environmentally unacceptable 'Strasbourg shuttle' outrageously still inflicted on MEPs and our taxpayers. I have learned that the European Parliament pays for 20 journalists to travel from Brussels every month because otherwise they would not come, the lack of coverage then being cited as to how MEPs are not democratic enough.
But if as expected Tory leader Cameron sets out plans to repatriate powers from Brussels to Britain before holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, then he parts company with Lib Dems, as Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have made very clear. An attempted repatriation exercise – which may never get traction anyway – is an entirely negative one which risks going horribly wrong. Although Cameron will not advocate a Brexit, a British exit from the EU, he may achieve just such a disastrous outcome in trying to appease the unappeasable Tory and UK Independence Party Europhobes who just want out.
How would a 'No' vote to his fictional referendum on a repatriation package be interpreted? Conventional commentary suggests that pro-Europeans should vote 'Yes' to stay in the EU, but a 'No' could express a variety of types of dissatisfaction. If Cameron were to come back eventually with a package that incorporated a complete shunning of justice and law enforcement cooperation, I for one would be tempted to vote 'No' to such an unsatisfactory result.
Prioritising Tory party management over the UK's national interest in a stable future in the EU is not statesmanship, so Cameron should not have the gall to invoke even Thatcher, let alone Churchill. By behaving like a petulant child throwing his toys out of the pram his only 'achievement' will be to isolate the UK further in Europe and create years of uncertainty about our EU membership, discouraging investment and damaging UK job prospects.
Instead of this negative approach, Britain should build on its record of strong influence in shaping EU policies such as free trade and catching criminals to build a positive alliance for reform with support from like-minded EU allies. The Obama administration in the United States has already warned against the UK weakening its position within the EU. Considering that there is increasing prospect of an EU-US transatlantic free trade agreement, this is hardly the time for the UK to exclude itself from the negotiating table. Even Norway's foreign minister has urged the UK not to quit the EU, citing his country's 'regulation without representation' whereby it accepts 80 per cent of EU laws and pays into the budget with no role in decisions.
One of the liberal European Commissioners had on his Christmas card a quote from a Leonard Cohen song: "Let's sing another song, boys, this one has grown old and bitter." That challenge can be directed at the boring old Europhobes' and the British public is maybe readier than for a while to listen to a new more European song, one that combines solidity with solidarity. Cameron's speech will no doubt get a rapturous reception in the usual media and political circles, but the British public – for whom Europe is way down the list of priorities – may at last becoming sceptical of the Eurosceptics' noisy obsessions.
Sarah Ludford is a Liberal Democrat MEP in the United Kingdom
British people struggle to name their MP but increasingly believe parliament effectively holds the government to account and discusses issues that matter, writes Dr Ruth Fox
What rubbish.
Matthew Thompson - Bedford, England
What I find interesting is, if the UK eventually votes to stay in the EU, what will become of this hard core of Eurosceptics. If the EU has destroyed 1,000 glorious years of history, and is like they say a fundamental betrayal of the UK and all it stands for, surely they have no option but to refashion themselves as a terrorist outfit and start violently agitating for separation? Just saying.
andy - st albans
It does not matter if the UK is in or out of the EU, as it is the economic strategy and policy fundamentals that are all wrong in Britain today. We simply have not moved on in our fundamental thinking and therefore it is totally out on sync with the economics of the 21st century.
Therefore whatever David Cameron says it will not make any difference to Britain's long-term socio-economic future. In this respect we have got to make it happen ourselves and not rely on the EU with all their perpetual problems that simply will not go away. For there are far greater problems for the UK that lie on the horizon and until politicians realise that their advisers - regulators - political and economic advisers et al (and who have consistently got it so terribly wrong over the last half century as history has clearly shown) are the fundamental reason for our continual dire economic circumstances, Britain will never really get out of its problems. What is needed is a fully inclusive system of involvement with its people and where then their creative ideas can enter the system to provide a sustainable future. Nothing else will provide this dynamic possibility. For presently in this respect with the elitist mentality only the few have the answers - history shows clearly that this is not the case again - there is little hope. Therefore the UK has to change to an integrated system where a pluralist society exists, where all can contribute and where presently no more than 3 per cent of the population are creatively involved with nation building. In this respect history has shown that around 75 per cent of all the major inventions that have created the modern world came from people outside the confines of mainstream R&D, not leading-edge research establishments et al. Cameron et al have to start taking notice of these facts for the UK's future, as we need the great independent world-changing ideas first. Something we have not got and where we always have the cart before the horse - every time it has to be said.
For if we do not change Britain can only look forward to continual decline - unfortunately this is a true assessment and where projections state that things will be much worse than this if we do not change our present ways of thinking.
Therefore things just have to change if the UK is to capture any future economic dynamism and that change process starts with our political mindsets which are transfixed by the current non-innovative governmental advisers. Logic states that only independent advisers, free from vested-interests, can provide this and where government has to start to take far greater notice of this vital neglected resource which is pre-eminently needed for the nation's future if we are to have one.
Dr David Stuart Hill, chief executive, World Innovation Foundation - Huddersfield
The EU is an artifact and it will disappear some day, just like any other empire-like structure has dissapeared in the past. I don't mind that lots of people don't realise this, especially Liberal Democrats of all countries but what I do mind is the prophecy of doom being attached to the end of the EU as it is. As to the new term 'Europhobe': we're not afraid of the EU, we only detest the powerplay and corruption that goes with it.
Alexander van der Meer - Amsterdam
Sarah Ludford's analysis of the EU situation is typically narrow and self-interested. No mention of border controls, being able to manage our own justice system, fisheries jurisdiction, excessive interference in the day to day affairs of the member states and the mass of other issues in which Brussels 'interferes'.
Thanks to the EU and Socialist/LibDem thinking, legislation and destructive administration - the UK has changed for the worse, almost beyond recognition in the past 20 plus years. Unless we now reassert our independence, with all the attendant short-term risks, our future will only be as a unit in a complex over which we exert only superficial influence.
Is this really what the hard-working Englishman and his family see as their future? For one, I say bite the bullet now. But will short-term politicians ever bite bullets?
Roy Allen - UK/Australian dual nationality, private citizen
"The British public has, for the first time for many years, heard about how one in 10 jobs and £3,300 a year income of each household in the United Kingdom depend on EU membership." Oh, for heaven's sake, what garbage. It's just weasel-worded spin to worm into the psyche of people.
Time and time again, other more level-headed intelligent people have told us that if we leave the EU, the countries remaining in it won't just suddenly stop trading with us. They would hurt themselves more than they would hurt us.
In my household, no income is dependent on the EU because two of us are unemployed and the other works in America. People in Britain really do need to get their brains in order and realise that EUphiles will use every trick in the book to smarm their way into people's confidence and secure a vote for EU membership.
They will use fear-mongering for all it's worth.
This is a war, you know. A battle for our minds. We stand to lose our freedom, sovereignty and control of the entire country if we capitulate to Brussels.
And may I ask why the British people are so keen to just give up? Hitler would have had a push-over if this generation had been living in the 1940s. It's apathy, pure and simple; people want Brussels to rule them because they can't be bothered to rule themselves. I seriously cannot believe that this is Britain's future -an EU outpost.
CDR - UK
Good, the UK deserves disaster.
ACA The Underground
A typical politician's statement, neatly avoiding the real issues. We aren't forced to choose between exports-plus-EU on the one hand and neither on the other hand. Even before the EEC, there was EFTA.
Now we have the WTO and global open trading. You always know that a politician is being economical with the truth when they start saying "Europe" instead of "EU", and using ad hominem arguments.
Paul - Scarborough
