Booker: fracking the consensus?
Sunday 4 November 2012
 Hayes's verdict on wind farms could just have well been spoken about Britain and the EU, by any of those 53 Tory MPs who voted against the party line, Booker writes. But what was significant, he says, "was that each marked the cracking apart of a suffocating all-party consensus which has imprisoned our politics for far too long". Even a year ago, he says, "it would have been unthinkable that so many Tory rebels would be willing to defeat the Government over the EU – or that a minister would question the plans to cover our countryside with wind farms". Nevertheless, Mr Cameron "may secretly be pleased that this rebellion will help him strike a Thatcher-like pose, 'defending Britain’s interests' against demands for a further huge increase in the spending of the Brussels Monster – as his EU colleagues head for a new treaty which will more than ever marginalise the British as second-class 'European citizens'". That, in fact, is a distinct possibility, as we see via Witterings from Witney, the odious Andrea Leadsom mount another faux challenge on the EU, claiming she has "an agenda for EU reform we Tories can agree on". Whether she's right or wrong, it doesn't matter - this is Tories talking to themselves. What does matter is the dwindling band of people out there who might be tempted to vote Conservatives at the next election. And they are unlikely to be at all impressed by Leadsom preaching EU "reform". Nor are they likely to be that impressed by Cameron's next cod squabble, as the Tory leader looks for another issue which will make him look "Big in Brussels" after the next European Council. It was, after all, this time last year that Cameron stumbled on his pretend veto, and since that played well in the polls – initially at least - his strategists are desperately looking for something to replicate the effect. Thus, while Booker sees a suffocating consensus at last starting to crack, and the genies of common sense and the national interest trying to struggle out of the bottle, there are different ways of looking at it.
More like, it is the Conservatives running scared, scrabbling round looking for something that will find favour with the voters – without having to change anything fundamental in their policy portfolio. Any departures from the consensus, therefore, are only skin deep and, as we have observed, Labour will soon paper over the cracks.
Nevertheless, Booker asserts that, on both the huge issues of energy policy and the EU, which are doing such damage to our country, although we are nowhere near the beginning of the end, we may have reached the end of the beginning.
There, he may be right. But I suspect that this end is a lot further from the finale than was el Alamein from V-E Day.
COMMENT THREAD Richard North 04/11/2012 |
EU regulation: ashes to ashes
Saturday 3 November 2012
Peeping from behind the paywall, we see The Times tell us that it is "impossible to track infected ash trees”. EU rules and "the sheer volume of imports" make tracking ash saplings brought in from infected countries almost impossible.
The Guardian amplifies this, arguing for "rigorous border checks on the billions of trees and plants imported into Britain and Europe from around the world every year for parks, gardens, woodlands and forests". "There is a tidal wave of pathogens coming in", says Martin Ward, chief plant health officer at Defra's Food and Environment Research Agency. "It is terrifying. We have to have a strategic response. Unless we have better biosecurity in the EU and Europe it will be very difficult to stop them coming in. It is difficult to ban all imports. It has to be done on a risk basis". And there you are. "It is difficult to ban all imports …". Another benefit of the EU – to ignore the fact that we are an island, and the benefits that go with it, to adopt a Continental system of control, that doesn't work anyway. This is the brilliant "Single Market" that Mr Cameron loves so much. We are so lucky we have it … no trees, but we can have open borders for dead wood. At least we'll have something to burn when the electricity runs out. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 03/11/2012 |
Denis MacShane: "plainly intended to deceive"
Friday 2 November 2012
MacShane, europhile extraordinaire and Labour MP for Rotherham, is looking at the prospect of being barred from his day job as an MP, for twelve months.
This follows an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who found that MacShane had submitted 19 false invoices for his expenses, to the tune of £12,900, in a manner that was "plainly intended to deceive". An unrepentent MacShane states that he "deeply" regrets that the way he chose to be reimbursed for costs related to his work in Europe and in combating anti-semitism, including being the Prime Minister's personal envoy, has been judged so harshly". I suppose this is exactly the sort of thing one should expect from a deeply committed europhile. After all, anyone who believes in the EU can also convince themselves that theft in the name of personal enrichment is perfectly legitimate. After all, there is little difference between the EU and expenses fraud. The only question now, is whether the Plod are going to get involved, or are they too busy smoking out Auntie BBC's nonces to have time to deal with a bent MP? UPDATE: He has resigned after 18 years as an MP. "I have been overwhelmed by messages of support for my work as an MP on a range of issues but I accept that my parliamentary career is over", the thief said. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 02/11/2012 |
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