Conservatives: three little words
Saturday 27 October 2012
There are few more blatant players at this game than former editor Charles Moore who is currentlytrying to assert that because the "colleagues" are powering ahead with further integration, this means that the Tories "are embracing ever looser union".
By way of an illustration of the fatuity of such a claim, one might say that, when one mistakenly climbs into an over-hot bath, no relief is afforded when one's neighbour is plunged into a vat of boiling oil. By comparison, we may be better off but, in real terms, there is no change in the personal level of discomfort.
Nevertheless, Moore does allow for the fact that Mr Cameron knows he will not survive in politics if he accepts "more Europe", although why he has to make this point is a puzzle. Mr Cameron cannot even strive for "more Europe" as the price of entry is membership of the eurozone. That is not even on the agenda.
That, though, brings us to Mr Moore's substantive point that the Conservatives at the top of the Government agree, "as Conservatives have never previously agreed, that the whole structure of the EU must be renegotiated".
So we get back, as we always do, to the renegotiation meme. No matter how many times it is said, no matter what the evidence, Mr Moore and his fellow travellers in the Conservative Party are deaf to reason.
If the Tories ever want a tutorial on why they are an electoral train-wreck, and are headed for a re-enactment of Hither Green, it can be done with three words: "they don't listen". Probably, some of them don't even have a listening mode but even those who do seem to have it switched off.
The fact is, though, there ain't going to be a renegotiation – not this side of an Article 50 application. And as often as the deaf-aid Tories say there will be, we have to say there will not. There will be no renegotiation – not anything that remotely embraces change to the whole structure of the EU.
Why the Tories so constantly repeat their meme, I do not know. More importantly, I no longer care. I just wish they wouldn't. So, as long as they want to continue being wrong, I will continue to be right. Then, in the unlikely event that they do try to conduct meaningful negotiations and get rebuffed, I can use three little words of my own: "Told you so".
But then, since the Tories aren't listening now, they won’t listen then. That is why their core vote is deserting them. But they can't hear the sound of marching feet either. And with friends like Mr Moore, who bolster their deafness with honeyed words in print, they have no means of finding out.
Perhaps Mr Moore should jump into that over-hot bath water and try telling us it's getting cooler. I am sure we will enjoy the experience, even if he doesn't.
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Richard North 27/10/2012
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