David Cameron has definitively ruled out a straight In-Out referendum times without number. Tomorrow, he will propose nothing very much. He never has. He never does. On anything. By contrast, this morning Ed Miliband did not rule out such a referendum, again for the umpteenth time. And he opened the debate around repatriation with a call for the repatriation of industrial and regional policy, so that, you know, a British Government could have an industrial and a regional policy.
That is the sort of thing remembered by some of us from the publications of the Labour Euro Safeguards Campaign 15 or 20 years ago. Miliband's channelling of Bryan Gould from the other side of the world, and of Peter Shore from the other side of the grave, makes it feel as if the former had become Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, or the latter had done so in 1980, or both.
It is as if Hugh Gaitskell had lived and become Prime Minister. It is as if Harold Wilson had won the 1970 Election and kept us out. It is as if Michael Foot had won the 1983 Election and pulled us out, rather than having been defeated by Margaret Thatcher, who during that Parliament signed the Single European Act, a piece of political union so great that it can never be equalled. It is as if the Neil Kinnock of 1987, or at a push the Neil Kinnock of 1992, had entered Downing Street.
It is as if that Gramscian coup in favour of Tony "Marxism Today" Blair had never been staged in the minutes after the death of John Smith, so that the Leadership of a party by then guaranteed to win the subsequent General Election had instead passed to a Labour candidate, whether Margaret Beckett or John Prescott, Robin Cook or Gordon Brown. You can always tell that the Left has exchanged politics for lifestyle glossiness when it becomes infatuated with the EU, to which it has always provided the consistent opposition in every European country, including this one.
With the outcome of the next General Election once again guaranteed only months after the last one, and for very similar reasons, the serious, Labour candidate certainly beat the glossy lifestyle, Eurocommunist candidate in 2010. As we see with especial clarity today. The key objective now is to keep him and his party in that sound mind. First, in Opposition. Then, and soon, in Government.
That is the sort of thing remembered by some of us from the publications of the Labour Euro Safeguards Campaign 15 or 20 years ago. Miliband's channelling of Bryan Gould from the other side of the world, and of Peter Shore from the other side of the grave, makes it feel as if the former had become Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, or the latter had done so in 1980, or both.
It is as if Hugh Gaitskell had lived and become Prime Minister. It is as if Harold Wilson had won the 1970 Election and kept us out. It is as if Michael Foot had won the 1983 Election and pulled us out, rather than having been defeated by Margaret Thatcher, who during that Parliament signed the Single European Act, a piece of political union so great that it can never be equalled. It is as if the Neil Kinnock of 1987, or at a push the Neil Kinnock of 1992, had entered Downing Street.
It is as if that Gramscian coup in favour of Tony "Marxism Today" Blair had never been staged in the minutes after the death of John Smith, so that the Leadership of a party by then guaranteed to win the subsequent General Election had instead passed to a Labour candidate, whether Margaret Beckett or John Prescott, Robin Cook or Gordon Brown. You can always tell that the Left has exchanged politics for lifestyle glossiness when it becomes infatuated with the EU, to which it has always provided the consistent opposition in every European country, including this one.
With the outcome of the next General Election once again guaranteed only months after the last one, and for very similar reasons, the serious, Labour candidate certainly beat the glossy lifestyle, Eurocommunist candidate in 2010. As we see with especial clarity today. The key objective now is to keep him and his party in that sound mind. First, in Opposition. Then, and soon, in Government.
Aww, poor Mr Lindsay.
ReplyDeleteYour wide-eyed credulity is really, genuinely heart-warming.
This is really pitiful, delusional stuff-your like an emaciated, abused dog desperately scrabbling around for any little scraps thrown down by its contemptuous master.
You do know "repatriation" is a fantasy that spindoctors like Miliband, and Cameron, use to keep us in the EU, right?
You know that Miliband explicitly ruled out leaving the EU on the Andrew Marr show (the only thing that would give us control of our laws) by saying its "not in our national interest", right?
You should clearly embrace UKIP.
We are the only party opposed to the EU.Just come on over. You know you want to.
This is just getting desperate.
You said it.
ReplyDeleteAnd with Cameron's speech tomorrow cancelled, the floor is now clear for Ed Miliband alone. UKIP, which Peter Hitchens despises but you ignore that, is the only BBC party opposed to the EU. But that is all. Entirely a creature of the BBC.
Oh, and UKIP is the only party saying simultaneously that the cuts are not happening and that they are not going far enough.
Increasingly, I doubt that it will contest the 2015 Election. It will split very badly next year when it does nowhere near as well as it will by then have spent five years telling everyone that it was going to do. (Labour, on the other hand, is going to top the poll in all 11 mainland regions, especially after today.)
If, that is, UKIP doesn't split a lot sooner that that. It very well might.
No wonder that Farage openly wants an electoral pact with Labour. He'll not get one. Labour doesn't need UKIP, just as the Conservatives do not want UKIP. But what would you say if he did?
I'd be delighted if UKIP made a pact with anybody to take us out of the EU. That is all I'm interested in.
ReplyDeleteBut it won't happen, because Farage isn't going to sell his soul for power, like the Lib Dems-and he knows neither of the Big Two parties will promise withdrawal.
What do you say after watching Miliband today passionately make the case for Britain to stay in the EU, because he says....big business wants us to!
Couldn't be further from the ideals you espouse!
"David Cameron has definitively ruled out an in-out referendum"
ReplyDeleteAnd so, too, has Edward Miliband. Or did this escape your attention?
Or, to put it in Mr Miliband's words; leaving the EU would "hang a closed sign" over British business.
He would campaign for a Yes vote. As, inevitably, would any Prime Minister; that was why Foot made no suggestion of a referendum in 1983. But he is open to holding the thing, although I am still with Foot that there is no need and that we should just legislate.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, and without reference to any referendum result, he has already announced his intention to legislate back control of industrial and regional policy, the very existence of which as public policy areas is anathema to the UKIP crowd. Perhaps they should say that at Rotherham or Middlesbrough next time? They should certainly expect to be asked about it.