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Norman Tebbit

Lord Tebbit of Chingford is one of Britain's most outspoken conservative commentators and politicians. He was a senior cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government and is a former Chairman of the Conservative Party. He has also worked in journalism, publishing, advertising and was a pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways.

Keep an eye on Nick Clegg:

Brussels would love to install him as our PM

By Norman Tebbit Politics Last updated: November 11th, 2011

20 Comments Comment on this article

Herman Van Rompuy with his PM-in-waiting (Photo: AFP/Getty)

It is not so much that Berlusconi has been toppled. That had been coming for a long time. It is that he is to be replaced by a former EU Commissioner, Sgr Monti, which demonstrates the extent of the power exerted by those Masters of Europe. It is the second coup d' état in less than a fortnight. “Who next?” we might well ask. Could it be us? Certainly not just now, but who would be Brussels’ man in London and how might they hope to get him into office?

Despite the recent extraordinary posturing of Michael Heseltine, we can be sure that he is seen as yesterday's man by Our Masters in Brussels. He muffed his part in the plot to remove Margaret Thatcher from office and missed his chance. Even apart from that, his extraordinary declaration that he still believes we should join the euro and of his commitment not just to European political union, but to global governance, has removed him from the field of political rationality.

I suspect that Our Masters' man is now Mr Clegg. He is a man of absolute loyalty to Brussels. He simply ignores the views of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, the Conservative Party and voters with his calm assurance in Brussels that those who want a return of powers to Westminster are a “fanatical” fringe. At the moment he is no more than the cuckoo in the nest and the eurocrats' hopes for Mr Clegg rest on a hung Parliament in 2015 with Labour the largest party, and Miliband, like Cameron in 2011, having been unable to capitalise on the sitting Government's difficulties.

We can be sure that a Lib-Lab government would not long have the confidence of the markets and Brussels' terms for assistance would include replacing the lacklustre Miliband with their man Clegg.

Having put the banker who helped to fiddle the Greek economic data to get Greece into the euro into office in Athens and selected former Commissioner Monti to govern as the Commission's man in Rome, Our Masters must be thinking that they can pick and choose the leaders of almost any member state.

It may be that the markets will stop them. It may be that the British people will find a democratic way to frustrate them. If not, as the European economy drags the world back into recession, there will be blood on the streets of Europe.

As Enoch Powell said long ago, “there can be no European Democracy because there is no European demos”.

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As Lord London wrote, very soon it will be the Italians and then what about us? Events have been moving quickly in the unfolding drama of the eurozone and a number of you wondered how I could see any hope in what was happening. Well, I did emphasise that it was no more than that. My hope was, and is, that Greece might regain its ability to manage, for good or ill, her own affairs. That would no doubt be painful, but surely less so than the remorseless grinding down of their economy under the instructions of those who are not responsible to the Greek people. That was well understood by Suboptimal Planet.

It was frederico who was first to point out that the polls showed that only 25% of Greeks want to leave the Euro. Then why were the Masters of Europe so insistent that they should not be allowed to vote? I thought it a pity he spoiled his contribution by a cheap sneer that UKIP would be happy to destroy the Euro and EU even at the expense of ruining this country.

I find it depressing that so many Europhiles are unable to comprehend that some of us take the considered view that the euro is a danger to Europe and that Britain would be better off governing itself. Which brings me to emmiem who was not sure what I meant by “liberation” for the Greeks. Well, just that. Letting them be free to run their own economy and enjoy or suffer the consequences.

A good many you including Islington Blue and durnovia agreed with mollyxxx that the Greeks should take the 50 per cent write-down of their debt and leave the euro setting the precedent for Italy and Spain. Then, of course we would all have to prop up our banks, but there could be an end to improvident lending and borrowing in sight. Others like vingoe and wilson thought Greece would be better off remaining in. Personally, I doubt it and I think it increases the chances of violent disorder in that country.

It was very helpful of billca to post the Der Spiegel interview on how Germany might leave the euro and create a new hard currency with some other North European states.

Laveen Ladharam asked two good questions. Firstly, is it not in our interest to have a decent eurozone? And secondly would it be better to have two such zones? I think the answers must be yes and yes, but it is clearly impossible to have a 17-, let alone 27-country eurozone that works. It might be possible to have two, but even then there are formidable difficulties in creating the two centralised governments that would be needed and making them democratically accountable. It is pie, perhaps mud pie, in the sky.

It was kind of emily rose to say it was “sweet of me” to praise Attlee and Bevin for the creation of Nato and the British nuclear deterrent. It reminded me of a discussion on the future of NATO in which I was involved with Jim Callaghan and Helmut Schmidt when Jim reminded Helmut Schimdt of the purpose of Nato. It was he said, “to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down”. It was a good job that they were great friends.

Indeed Attlee and Bevin were right to reject French and German overtures to join them on the road to the euro disaster we are now seeing. It is a pity that wombat51 is not as wise as those Labour statesmen or crownarmourer, and that he imagines it is the EU that has kept the peace in Europe.

I thought that the flyingscotsman took a much too short-term view of Parliament. That institution managed our affairs in a way which avoided violent revolution, saw us through the industrial revolution, the creation of the British Empire and more than one attempt by our enemies to attack us. It is since 1945 that it has failed and only because of the people we elected to it.

I was pleased to have support from pjon and briankill, both civil servants, on the way in which the civil service has been damaged since 1997.

I very much agree with buckrogers who deplored the “vituperative posts, often with no basis of fact”. As he said, to disagree does not give the right to be abusive. I suspect that marcus_junius_brutus may be right to say it is because such people have no argument to put. Nor do I care for the poison-pen brigade of cowards led by tepidcocoa 83, hiding in anonomity to spew untruth. I am not sure whether they are best consigned to the psychiatrists couch or the Magistrates Court. Certainly they have no place in decent company nor rational discussion of any issue.

Tags: Berlusconi, Greece, Italy, Nick Clegg