Britain to Renegotiate Ties to Brussels?

In the aftermath of Labour's humiliation at the polls last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been putting himself about on the broadcast media. And a disconcerting experience it is too. He did a soft interview with Fern Britton on ITV's Good Morning'. It is worth watching, if only to reinforce the sense that Gordon Brown is, in fact, a rather weird individual. Meanwhile attention begins to focus on David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservative Party.

The most interesting snippet of the week is a brief but undoubtedly intriguing aside concerning Conservative policy on the EU contained in a Spectator blog session of reader's questions to Cameron:

That Pesky Lisbon Treaty

* Will you put the EU constitution, er sorry EU reform treaty to a public referendum? If that referendum rejects the treaty will you withdraw from it? (Mike, 9.27am)
* What is the Tory policy on Europe? (batman, 11.58am)
* What will he do with the Lisbon Treaty if the tories win the general election after it has already entered into force? (Francisco Mendes da Silva, 12.00pm)

Cameron is studiously tight-lipped on this. Any discussion could draw the party into a maelstrom at a time when unity is needed. But one theory, which I have now heard from two Shadow Cabinet members, is that the Conservatives would insert in their manifesto a pledge to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership of the European Union and then hold a referendum on the result. It would be a herculean task, which would take years. But when I put the proposal to Mr Cameron, I did not receive the denial I expected.

CAMERON: "These suggestions are options for how to deliver what I’ve spoken about," (ie, his promise not to let "things rest") "I am not going to comment favourably or unfavourably on any option like that until we are ready to do so."

* Please ask David Cameron what he will do about the Lisbon Treaty? and will he give us the referendum he promised? (Elizabeth Elliot-Pyle, 2.53pm)

CAMERON: “We haven’t had the Irish referendum, it is still live in the capitals of Europe, if there was an election in the next few months it would still be possible to have a referendum. What I mean is if the Treaty goes through and it is passed in Westminster and Brussels and we wanted to come forward with our proposals for how we would rectify that and what we want to do about it and we will do that in time in our own time, if it does become ratified by every country in Europe. But I’m a great believer that, you know, my deadlines are to get the decisions right, to think them through carefully, to make sure that the policy works and to have it all in place for the next election whenever that is. Other people’s deadlines are rather different and I have to work to my deadlines rather than other people's and that’s the only way to deal with it.”

The interesting bit is in the editorial aside to the effect that the Tories may insert a pledge in their manifesto "to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership of the European Union and then hold a referendum on the result."

If true, this would represent a major development. I say "if true" because until such a pledge appears in print, I believe in it just as much as I believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden, suspecting that the Tories are perfectly capable of saying that sort of thing now to garner support from all shades of Eurosceptic opinion and then to back away at the last minute.

Let us, however, take it at face value and as representing something which will happen.
We must note that Cameron is still refusing to go much beyond the next immediate step in the EU-wide ratification process. Plainly he is looking at the possibility of the Irish refusing to toe the party line which would get him (and Gordon Brown) off something of a hook. Getting a clear statement of Tory policy on the EU is going to be a process of extracting blood from a stone, I fear.

It is the anonymous report of a prospect of renegotiation of Britain’s EU relationship which intrigues. Such a debate could not but encompass the option of complete withdrawal from the EU (otherwise it is no debate at all). It may be that that is something which Cameron has in mind: being inherently suspicious of the real purpose of allowing such a debate to take place, it may well be that the intention is to allow such a debate but so to conduct it that, whatever else happens, Britain remains locked into the EU, this time with the backing of a referendum which would put the issue beyond us for a generation.

Useless

"the Conservatives would insert in their manifesto a pledge to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership of the European Union and then hold a referendum on the result".

 

This is totally unacceptable and typical of the useless Tories.

Assuming all the conjecture is true, what is it that they are offering here? Answer: If we, the British electorate, agree to vote them in to power at the next election, they say they MIGHT consider offering the British people an opportunity to remain inside the EU on slightly  more advantageous terms. Well, no thank you, I'm not interested. In fact, I don't even want a promise of a referendum. I want a mainstream British political party  to commit to taking the United Kingdom OUT of the EU at the earliest opportunity.Nothing more, nothing less.

The party that offers me THAT option gets my vote.

Meet the new boss, same as

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.... Not holding my breath here for a referendum if the Torries come into power. I do like how the Brussels Politbureau postponed sactioning Ireland until after their referendum for allowing their Catholic schools to preferentially hire Catholics to teach in them (oh the humanity!).