Our second-rate politician turned Foreign Secretary has got his
minions in the Foreign Office to write him an article on Britain and
the EU. It is so wildly anti-British - so wildly inaccuraste - so
wildly insensitive - that I felt the only thing to do was to take it
apart with a fine toothcomb and a laborious job it was too. I hope I
have adequately demolished. it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
==========================SPECTATOR 6.5.09
Hague’s Eu Policy Would Be Suicidal For Britain
DAVID MILIBAND
The year ahead is crucial for the European Union.
Next month’s European elections are unlikely to be decided on
European issues. But as Europe is the one foreign policy area where
William Hague has said he has major differences with the government
it is important to clarify what is at stake. As Conservatives
commemorate the 30th anniversary of Mrs Thatcher’s election in 1979,
they would do well to remember one reason it all ended in tears was
Europe.
The year ahead is crucial for the European Union. Can we strengthen
the single market, despite the economic crisis, and so play our part
in ensuring that there is no global slide towards protectionism? Will
Europe lead the world to a deal on climate change to replace Kyoto?
Can we make international supervision of the banking system more
effective? [We need better national sdupervision NOT bureauycratic
international delay and procrastination and arguments - cs] My answer
to all these questions is yes. But we can only reach this high level
of achievement if the UK stays at the centre of things, shaping the
EU debate as Gordon Brown has done during the economic crisis. [This
is absolute baldedash. As the Germans say today The Lisbon Treaty is
irrelevant to all of that - cs]
In foreign policy, equally important questions face us. The EU must
decide the next steps for accession negotiations with Turkey and the
countries of the western Balkans. We must reach out further to
countries to the east and south. We must establish for the first time
an economic and political partnership with Pakistan. We must take
decisions — topical ones now — on whether to offer preferential trade
with Sri Lanka. [Nothing in that list can be better dealt with by the
Brussels-based bureaucracy which , as we have seen over Palestine,
is a blueprint for INaction -cs] We will decide whether to build on
the success of European security and defence policy missions in Chad
and in the Gulf of Aden. [NEITHER works! Complete disasters! -cs]
European foreign policy is already a reality. We shouldn’t be afraid
of it. It doesn’t and shouldn’t replace national foreign policy. [It
is a proven failure with Mr Solana going through the motions and
achieving precisely NOTHING -cs] And it is nonsense to argue, as does
the Tory defence spokesman, Liam Fox, that it is a threat to Nato.
The Secretary General of Nato and President of the United States take
precisely the opposite view. [Well. they would do, wouldn’t they!
They don’t want to make it even worse. Meanwhile France wants tyo
replace NATO with a EU-based treaty where n obody’s troops but the
the British are allowed to fight! -cs] A more effective EU defence
policy is a complement to Nato — just look at the partnership in
Kosovo. [What? A surrender to Albanian terrorists? -cs]
But while the EU is the largest single market in the world, it is too
often a source of frustration to friends for the hesitant way it
approaches its global role. That is why I want the Lisbon Treaty
finally to pass this year. Then the EU can rationalise its foreign
policy work under a High Representative, supported by an External
Action Service, with both answerable to the 27 member states of the
EU. And our summits with the USA, Russia and China will become a
genuinely strategic dialogue led by a permanent President of the
European Council. [Britain would continually be outvoted. Our
interests are global - the other EU countries are continental. It
makes a difference Mr Miliband! -cs]
European foreign policy is both a reality and a necessity. If it did
not exist, we would be struggling to create it. The question is
whether it has a strong British stamp. And this is where Tory plans
are so dangerous.
In the debates on the Lisbon Treaty Kenneth Clarke, [UKIP and the
Labour party are fixated by Ken! He’s no longer able to influence
affairs. -cs] then in free-thinking mode, made a devastating
intervention against Mr Hague’s policy that he would ‘not let matters
rest’ if the Lisbon Treaty passed. He was clear what the alternatives
were: ‘the repudiation of a treaty that this country has ratified; an
attempt to renegotiate or reopen that treaty; a parliamentary process
of some kind; or a referendum.’
The Tories are travelling very light on European policy (as on
others). But last week Mr Hague said that on day one in the Foreign
Office he will focus on a Bill to hold a referendum on the Lisbon
Treaty, if the Treaty has not been passed, or other measures to
impede the Treaty if it has. This is a crowd-pleaser in the Tory
party, but it is suicidal when it comes to British influence and
British interests.
Leave to one side that our parliament has actually passed the Lisbon
Treaty. [But the people oppose it, Mr Miliband, and we were PROMISED
a referendum. Promises don’t count for you Mr Miliband, eh? -cs]
The Tory policy is dangerous for four reasons.
First, it restarts an institutional debate in Europe when that is the
last thing the people of the UK need. [The people of Europe need it
badly. The British, the Dutch. the French and the Irish don’t want
this treaty and three of them have said so. The rest have had their
democratic rights stolen -cs] Gordon Brown negotiated an agreement
at the December 2007 European Council that passage of the Lisbon
Treaty would be accompanied by a self-denying ordinance against any
further institutional tinkering before 2017. [This is gut-wrenchingly
dishonest. He must know that the Treaty contains provisions for
amending it without bothering to call a meeting to do so! I call
that a fraud -cs]
Second, not content with isolating Britain from every mainstream
political grouping in the European parliament [All elected by a
fraudulent system which prevents the people having any significant
influence on the composition of that parliament -cs] through their
decision to withdraw from the European People’s Party, This policy
isolates Britain from every other government in Europe. Mr Hague says
he is a great enthusiast for some European action, but not for
European institutions. But the idea that we will get anywhere on
extending the single market, driving forward enlargement, or
reforming the budget if our flagship stance in foreign policy is to
destroy the Lisbon Treaty is self-delusion.
Third, Mr Hague’s political gamesmanship risks destroying our special
relationship with the US. President Obama has said very clearly that,
‘America has no better partner than Europe.[That’s the kind of vapid
remark politicians make to please their audiences! - Really! -cs]
Now is the time to join together, through constant co-operation,
strong institutions, shared sacrifice and a global commitment to
progress.’ [Blah! Blah! Blah! -cs] Secretary of State Clinton has
looked to Europe for active partnership as the new administration
seeks to reset relations with Russia and Iran, and as new and bolder
goals are defined for Afghanistan and the Middle East. [This is pure
waffle. The rest of the major countries in the EU are determined to
do nothing much in Afghanistran and we can’t do more as Miliband’s
lot have run us out of money -cs]
If Britain moves itself to the margins of Europe I can draw no other
conclusion from my work [WHAT WORK WITH them -cs] with the US
administration than that Britain’s special relationship with the US
will become a piece of historical nostalgia []it already is -cs] —
dusty bunting hauled out to adorn official occasions, not the
lifeblood of our everyday diplomatic thinking. The UK’s diplomatic,
military and intelligence assets are valuable to the US, but without
the political weight to drive Europe forward we are a far less useful
ally.
Fourth, a referendum held once the Lisbon Treaty is in force and has
been passed by all 27 countries — or some other mechanism to satisfy
Tory scepticism about Europe — can only have one outcome, namely the
renegotiation of the terms of Britain’s membership of the EU. [YES -
OK - Excellent -cs] That is because once the Lisbon Treaty is in
force, it no longer exists as the Lisbon Treaty but is consolidated
into the founding treaties of the EU.
What the UK really needs is a European Union confident in its sense
of achievement and bold in its ambition, not a body hobbled by
institutional squabbling inflamed by politicians who have never
believed in its potential. [The trouble is that Britain’s interests
are diametrically opposed to those of most continental EU countries.
We want free markets - They want regulated ones - regulated by
politicians. We want a global outlookj for we trade with the world.
They look inward for they trade with themselves. De Gaulle
recognised this when he said:- “England, (Britain!) in effect is
insular. She is maritime. She is linked through her trade, her
markets, her supply lines to the most distant countries. She pursues
essentially industrial and commercial activities .... She has, in all
her doings, very marked and very original habits and traditions. In
short England's nature, England's structure, England's very situation
differs profoundly from those of the Continentals." .
William Hague has written a well-received book on the life of William
Pitt. He will therefore know Pitt’s aphorism that Britain should
provide an example to Europe. His current approach threatens a unique
double whammy: bad for Europe and bad for Britain. [Or as most
Britons would see it as an example of how to set Europe free - AGAIN!
-cs]
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