When Conservative Mainstream launched a leaflet in favour of EU membership, Ken Clarke showed up to reminisce
When Tory MP Laura Sandys announced she would not be seeking re-election after just one term in parliament, speculation was rife. Was her decision simply prompted by family factors, by gender bias in Dave's Britain, or even by the Ukip menace in her Kentish constituency, birthplace of Viagra? Yesterday all became plain.
Reckless woman that she is, Sandys turns out to back government policy on Europe. Shock, horror, she wants to reform the EU and then to STAY IN, much as Dave secretly does. Worse, the plucky MP is prepared to say so, publicly and in daylight without police protection from revolving-eyed colleagues who want to cast off Brussels much as Alex Salmond hopes to shed London.
In a provocation worthy of Russian special forces in Crimea, Sandys summoned a Westminster press conference in her capacity as chair of Conservative Mainstream, a group of Tory moderates who have taken a Trappist vow of silence for fear of upsetting the Daily Beast. To get round their vow some Trappists have produce a pro-EU pamphlet in favour of continued British EU membership. It contains enough long words to discourage a wide readership in Fleet Street. This column will not reveal their identities. They include vulnerable, young MPs with their whole lives ahead of them, some with wives or loved ones (in some cases both).
Speeches were duly made to the general effect that in a world of big trade blocks 60-million-strong Britain might have more clout inside a 500-million-strong market for its goods and services. It was also asserted that the moon is not made of green cheese, as sometimes claimed on the Taliban wing of the party.
As the only survivor of Ted Heath's long march into Europe (1961-73) Ken Clarke arrived late and sat at the back, waiting to be called to tell war stories to young colleagues who were doing GCEs or squeezing zits at the time. He duly obliged, casually duffing up Cameron's (aged six when Ted signed up for Brussels) renegotiating strategy in passing.
Warming to the futility of bogus renegotiation, Clarke recalled that "sole responsibility" for Britain's 1975 referendum on EU membership lay with Tony Benn ("whom we are all lamenting"). Cynical nonsense it had been too, he added. Within six months of being trounced 2 to 1 by the yes vote, Benn was "taking no notice of the result because he wanted a centralised socialist state".
All this was uttered with cheerful disdain by the Nottingham watchmaker's son. It contrasted sharply with the lachrymose tone later adopted by the speaker, John Bercow, when he drew the attention of any MPs who might have missed it to the fact that Benn Senior had died. More than that, Mr Speaker announced that party leaders would get their chance to pay tributes at PMQs on Wednesday, MPs (on all sides!) in a special session on Thursday. There will also be a book of condolences.
This was distinctly odd. Monarchs and long-gone prime ministers get the VIP treatment when they die. Nelson Mandela was accorded a similar and unprecedented outpouring in December at the close of his heroic and forgiving life. An MP for 50 years, Tony Benn was also widely admired, a middling cabinet minister who last held office in 1979, controversial even in his own party. It is not quite the same. Don't MPs have a day job, apart from paying tribute to their own?
Apparently not. Mr Speaker kept referring to "Tony" as if they were old chums. It seems unlikely, since Bercow was still an obnoxious rightwing brat when Benn left the Commons in 2001, his break with Thatcherite Toryism yet to come. By comparison, Tony Benn's leap to the left was barely a hop. Where will it end? With a lying-in-state for Paul McCartney or Simon Cowell? A book of condolences for George Galloway? Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
When Tory MP Laura Sandys announced she would not be seeking re-election after just one term in parliament, speculation was rife. Was her decision simply prompted by family factors, by gender bias in Dave's Britain, or even by the Ukip menace in her Kentish constituency, birthplace of Viagra? Yesterday all became plain.
Reckless woman that she is, Sandys turns out to back government policy on Europe. Shock, horror, she wants to reform the EU and then to STAY IN, much as Dave secretly does. Worse, the plucky MP is prepared to say so, publicly and in daylight without police protection from revolving-eyed colleagues who want to cast off Brussels much as Alex Salmond hopes to shed London.
In a provocation worthy of Russian special forces in Crimea, Sandys summoned a Westminster press conference in her capacity as chair of Conservative Mainstream, a group of Tory moderates who have taken a Trappist vow of silence for fear of upsetting the Daily Beast. To get round their vow some Trappists have produce a pro-EU pamphlet in favour of continued British EU membership. It contains enough long words to discourage a wide readership in Fleet Street. This column will not reveal their identities. They include vulnerable, young MPs with their whole lives ahead of them, some with wives or loved ones (in some cases both).
Speeches were duly made to the general effect that in a world of big trade blocks 60-million-strong Britain might have more clout inside a 500-million-strong market for its goods and services. It was also asserted that the moon is not made of green cheese, as sometimes claimed on the Taliban wing of the party.
As the only survivor of Ted Heath's long march into Europe (1961-73) Ken Clarke arrived late and sat at the back, waiting to be called to tell war stories to young colleagues who were doing GCEs or squeezing zits at the time. He duly obliged, casually duffing up Cameron's (aged six when Ted signed up for Brussels) renegotiating strategy in passing.
Warming to the futility of bogus renegotiation, Clarke recalled that "sole responsibility" for Britain's 1975 referendum on EU membership lay with Tony Benn ("whom we are all lamenting"). Cynical nonsense it had been too, he added. Within six months of being trounced 2 to 1 by the yes vote, Benn was "taking no notice of the result because he wanted a centralised socialist state".
All this was uttered with cheerful disdain by the Nottingham watchmaker's son. It contrasted sharply with the lachrymose tone later adopted by the speaker, John Bercow, when he drew the attention of any MPs who might have missed it to the fact that Benn Senior had died. More than that, Mr Speaker announced that party leaders would get their chance to pay tributes at PMQs on Wednesday, MPs (on all sides!) in a special session on Thursday. There will also be a book of condolences.
This was distinctly odd. Monarchs and long-gone prime ministers get the VIP treatment when they die. Nelson Mandela was accorded a similar and unprecedented outpouring in December at the close of his heroic and forgiving life. An MP for 50 years, Tony Benn was also widely admired, a middling cabinet minister who last held office in 1979, controversial even in his own party. It is not quite the same. Don't MPs have a day job, apart from paying tribute to their own?
Apparently not. Mr Speaker kept referring to "Tony" as if they were old chums. It seems unlikely, since Bercow was still an obnoxious rightwing brat when Benn left the Commons in 2001, his break with Thatcherite Toryism yet to come. By comparison, Tony Benn's leap to the left was barely a hop. Where will it end? With a lying-in-state for Paul McCartney or Simon Cowell? A book of condolences for George Galloway? Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.