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This is Somerset --
At this month's CBI Conference, David Cameron stated: "It is my judgement that our current consent for remaining inside the EU is wafer thin. We haven't made the argument enough about why Europe matters and frankly there are lots of things in the European Union that badly need reform."
I don't know what the bemused captains of industry will have made of this muted clarion call. What is clear is that Cameron himself seemed more intent on damning with faint praise rather than "making the argument" for Britain's EU membership.
Nothing new here. David Cameron has waxed hot and cold on Europe, conjuring up a near paranoid euro-landscape. Take these extracts from his long heralded speech on Europe a year ago.
"The EU has infected our business with an external plague of excessive regulation"
"The Eurozone has enforced austerity and slashed living standards"
" The Eurozone will fetch up in a no-man's world between the rising economies of Asia and market-driven North America"
"The Eurozone is seeking to supplant national parliaments as the true source of real legitimacy and accountability----and wants everything to be harmonised to hanker after some unattainable and infinitely level playing field"
Perhaps Cameron did not write this rubbish himself and it's the output of some demented speechwriter but how can he expect to win any credibility with fellow EU leaders if he appears to hold such distorted views?
At worst, this flawed analysis betrays a deeply prejudiced mindset. Apart from being needlessly unstatesmanlike, comments like these display a frightening degree of ignorance about how the EU works.
This may stem from the isolation of his Tory MEPs in the European Parliament after Cameron instructed them to leave the mainstream Christian Democratic Group, the European Peoples Party (EPP). The EPP had nearly 300 members, including large contingents from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Benelux and guaranteed the Tories a number of important committee chairs and rapporteurships. The EPP also had within its ranks several very experienced national politicians and former Prime Ministers.
The Tory MEPs then formed a much smaller group from themselves, 20 Poles and Czechs and odds and sods from Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Holland and Denmark. Needless to remark, most of the chairs and rapporteurships went out the window, thus reducing their capacity to lobby on behalf of Britain and their constituents. Inevitably they were seen as a marginalised awkward squad taking instructions from Number 10. It is worth noting that the UK is the only country represented in this new Group who has a Prime Minister in office.
This narrow perspective may have deluded the PM that somehow he's in a majority. He uses weasel words like "some" to cluster his perceived adversaries and "many" to portray his imagined allies, even though eurozone members number 17 against 11 non members. And in his constant hostility to the single currency, he completely overlooks the role it has played in increasing and facilitating trade within the Eurozone. After all, it's a pretty uncommon market that would seek to retain multiple currencies with all the exchange rate turbulence involved.
The PM sees it differently. He expects "expressions of contrition" from those who urged Britain to join and by implication, therefore, from all those 17 states who joined!
What arrogance and what a way to win friends and influence people in the negotiations which lie ahead. He asserts there is a crisis of European competitiveness and patronisingly concedes that "some countries within the EU are doing petty well".
Good for Dave! German leaders, with their multi billion trade surplus will be queuing up to read his ideas on growth and sorting Europe out. Others will be relieved to hear that they are doing "pretty well" and will, no doubt, be interested to learn how Britain's rail travellers pay the highest fares in Europe for a service seriously inferior to Europe's best, how our NHS is threatening to burst at the seams, and how many of our school leavers display some of the lowest levels of literacy and numeracy in the developed world.
It's time Mr Cameron realised you just can't be all things to all men. Speeches designed to placate his anti-European head-bangers will be read by fellow European leaders who will be more interested in Europe's collective good. Pandering to UK factional obsessions will not get Europe on our side.
It really is time for Mr. Cameron to come clean on Europe. What does he really believe? The CBI, the Engineering Employers the TUC and many other organisations ,including the City of London, who recognise that there is no viable alternative to remaining in the EU, must demand a clearer lead from the PM. Reported by This is 12 hours ago.
Clik here to view.
This is Somerset --At this month's CBI Conference, David Cameron stated: "It is my judgement that our current consent for remaining inside the EU is wafer thin. We haven't made the argument enough about why Europe matters and frankly there are lots of things in the European Union that badly need reform."
I don't know what the bemused captains of industry will have made of this muted clarion call. What is clear is that Cameron himself seemed more intent on damning with faint praise rather than "making the argument" for Britain's EU membership.
Nothing new here. David Cameron has waxed hot and cold on Europe, conjuring up a near paranoid euro-landscape. Take these extracts from his long heralded speech on Europe a year ago.
"The EU has infected our business with an external plague of excessive regulation"
"The Eurozone has enforced austerity and slashed living standards"
" The Eurozone will fetch up in a no-man's world between the rising economies of Asia and market-driven North America"
"The Eurozone is seeking to supplant national parliaments as the true source of real legitimacy and accountability----and wants everything to be harmonised to hanker after some unattainable and infinitely level playing field"
Perhaps Cameron did not write this rubbish himself and it's the output of some demented speechwriter but how can he expect to win any credibility with fellow EU leaders if he appears to hold such distorted views?
At worst, this flawed analysis betrays a deeply prejudiced mindset. Apart from being needlessly unstatesmanlike, comments like these display a frightening degree of ignorance about how the EU works.
This may stem from the isolation of his Tory MEPs in the European Parliament after Cameron instructed them to leave the mainstream Christian Democratic Group, the European Peoples Party (EPP). The EPP had nearly 300 members, including large contingents from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Benelux and guaranteed the Tories a number of important committee chairs and rapporteurships. The EPP also had within its ranks several very experienced national politicians and former Prime Ministers.
The Tory MEPs then formed a much smaller group from themselves, 20 Poles and Czechs and odds and sods from Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Holland and Denmark. Needless to remark, most of the chairs and rapporteurships went out the window, thus reducing their capacity to lobby on behalf of Britain and their constituents. Inevitably they were seen as a marginalised awkward squad taking instructions from Number 10. It is worth noting that the UK is the only country represented in this new Group who has a Prime Minister in office.
This narrow perspective may have deluded the PM that somehow he's in a majority. He uses weasel words like "some" to cluster his perceived adversaries and "many" to portray his imagined allies, even though eurozone members number 17 against 11 non members. And in his constant hostility to the single currency, he completely overlooks the role it has played in increasing and facilitating trade within the Eurozone. After all, it's a pretty uncommon market that would seek to retain multiple currencies with all the exchange rate turbulence involved.
The PM sees it differently. He expects "expressions of contrition" from those who urged Britain to join and by implication, therefore, from all those 17 states who joined!
What arrogance and what a way to win friends and influence people in the negotiations which lie ahead. He asserts there is a crisis of European competitiveness and patronisingly concedes that "some countries within the EU are doing petty well".
Good for Dave! German leaders, with their multi billion trade surplus will be queuing up to read his ideas on growth and sorting Europe out. Others will be relieved to hear that they are doing "pretty well" and will, no doubt, be interested to learn how Britain's rail travellers pay the highest fares in Europe for a service seriously inferior to Europe's best, how our NHS is threatening to burst at the seams, and how many of our school leavers display some of the lowest levels of literacy and numeracy in the developed world.
It's time Mr Cameron realised you just can't be all things to all men. Speeches designed to placate his anti-European head-bangers will be read by fellow European leaders who will be more interested in Europe's collective good. Pandering to UK factional obsessions will not get Europe on our side.
It really is time for Mr. Cameron to come clean on Europe. What does he really believe? The CBI, the Engineering Employers the TUC and many other organisations ,including the City of London, who recognise that there is no viable alternative to remaining in the EU, must demand a clearer lead from the PM. Reported by This is 12 hours ago.