On top of their game? - by Richard... Monday, October 24, 2011

On top of their game? - by Richard... Monday, October 24, 2011

A number of MPs in the EU Referendum debate refer to it coming about as a result of the e-petition reaching the 100,000 level. Included in that number have been The Boy, Kate Hoey, Zac Goldsmith and Mark "the mouth" Pritchard.

But, as The Guardian helpfully points out, the debate is happening because the backbench business committee, which was set up after the general election to allocate time for backbench debates, decided to grant David Nuttall's request for one.

Nuttall's case was supported by the fact that more than 100,000 had signed an old-fashioned paper petition submitted to Downing Street. But his application had nothing to do with the new e-petition procedure. The only e-petition, sponsored by The Daily Express has attracted only 36,994 signatures.

It might be a small point but you would think that MPs – at the heart of Westminster – would actually know such things. And if we can't rely on them to get such details right, how can we rely on them to understand – or articulate – the complex arguments relating to membership of the EU?

In fact, we cannot. Jimmy Hood opened the case against the motion by saying that many of the arguments, which he had heard so often, had scarcely changed. And indeed they haven't. It is as if time has stood still – on both sides.

Should we have actually had a referendum campaign, the British public would have switched off in their droves long before the vote. These people simply have not developed, have not moved on. They call themselves our representatives, but nothing in this debate gives us any confidence that they are capable of representing up.

Switch on – listen to the dross … switch off. MPs are no longer part of the debate. Any change is going to happen without them - in spite of them.

Not enough - by Richard...

"Forty-nine per cent of voters would vote to get Britain out of Europe, as against just forty percent who prefer to stay in", says a Guardian/ICM poll - a nine-point lead. Yet, in July of this year, theDaily Mail was reporting a "huge lead" of 50 to 33 percent of the public wanting to leave the EU – a 17-point lead.

Thus, sentiment has dropped eight points in three months. And, as we pointed out in July, a poll in 1974 gave a lead of 18 points for withdrawal – 50 percent as against 32 percent. But, when the actual referendum came in 1975, 67.2 percent voted to stay in, while those voting to leave had fallen to 32.8 percent.

The Boy, meanwhile, has argued that the British people prefer to stay within the EU. He may not be wrong , but how odd it is when he doesn't want to take the risk of finding out – even though the odds are possibly in his favour.

They just don't get it - by Richard...

Here we have the luvvies from The Independent, joined by the Failygraph fools, describing Hague as "strongly eurosceptic". Not only is the "bubble" a real phenomenon, we see here how the bubble-dwellers use a different language. Some of the words are the same, but they have completely different meanings.

"I've argued for more referendums than almost anybody else, I've argued against the euro more comprehensively than almost anybody else," says Hague. But this is a man strongly in favour of our continued membership of the EU, and author of the fatuous slogan "in Europe but not ruled by Europe".

But, in 1999, Steve Richards, then chief political commentator for The Independent wrote in The New Statesman: "The Conservatives are playing games with the political implications of Britain's membership of the EU depending on their latest opinion poll findings …".

Then and now, that is what they are doing. Whatever the rhetoric, William Hague is genuinely committed to membership of the EU, and has been consistently so, even in May 1999 arguing:

The British people believe that Britain's place lies firmly within the European Union, but that we should work to make it the right kind of European Union. This should be a European Union which does less but does it better …

The underlying commitment to membership destroys any claim to being a eurosceptic. Yet, after more than a decade of fudge, Hague retains his media reputation. Thus is the language perverted and the arguments totally distorted. How can there be a dialogue when we cannot even agree on the meaning of words?

The privileges of power - by Richard...

Sarkozy bluntly told Cameron: "You have lost a good opportunity to shut up." He added: "We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings".

And in so doing, a Frenchman has done what at least ten million Englishmen would have loved to have done – to tell the Great Leader to shut up. How is it that the Kermits get all the fun?

Poisoning the well - by Richard... Sunday, October 23, 2011

Warner awakes, with this: "On Europe, as on most other issues, you could not put a cigarette paper between the main parties. The new politics is no longer a contest between rival party ideologies but between the political class and the public it despises".

What he is describing, of course, is the "above the line" phenomenon that we wrote about at the beginning of this month. It is fascinating to see that different people, entirely independently, are coming to the same conclusion.

And, talking of conclusions, Autonomous Mind looks at the forthcoming referendum debate and concludes that the renegotiation option is poisoning the well – behaviour common to retreating armies. (unashamedly, I have borrowed his pic).

Typical of the genre is Bernard Jenkin in the Failygraph, yet another MP bleating about the government taking back power from Brussels. Whether intentional or not, he and the likes of George Eustice will ensure that the debate goes nowhere. By Wednesday, the issue will be yesterday's news, parked, and forgotten ... which was perhaps the intention all along.

Unsurprisingly, d'Ancona notes that Eustice – once Cameron's press secretary – "has earned the discreet gratitude of No 10" for his handling of the issue and is now the one rebel who's still got a good chance of promotion. Poisoning wells, therefore, has its reward. Expect Eustice to be a PPS within six months and a junior minister before the end of The Boy's reign. He has served his master well.