Nick Cohen has used his Observer column to suggest that support for the euro, and for European federalism generally, was and is a sort of blip on the part of otherwise sensible, mainstream, moderate politicians, whereas opposition was and is the mark of extremists. In Britain, this trick goes back at least to the 1975 referendum, when the media concentrated very heavily on Tony Benn and Enoch Powell. To the exclusion of those Tories (still embodied by the present Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell) whose resistance was rooted in their Keynesianism, their strong support for the Commonwealth, and their Disraelian and Namierite foreign policy realism. And to the exclusion of Labour figures of very similar mind, such as Douglas Jay and Peter Shore.
Not only are we subject to a legislative body, the Council of Ministers, which meets in secret and publishes no Official Report. But we are also subject to the legislative will of the sorts of people that turn up in the coalitions represented in that Council. And, indeed, in the European Parliament. Stalinists and Trotskyists. Neo-Fascists and neo-Nazis. Members of Eastern Europe’s kleptomaniac nomenklatura. Neoconservatives such as now run France and Germany. Dutch ultra-Calvinists who will not have women candidates. Before long, the ruling Islamists of Turkey. And their opponents, variously extreme secular ultra-nationalists and Marxist Kurdish separatists.
When Jörg Haider’s party was in government in Austria, the totally unreconstructed Communist Party was in government in France. In the Council of Ministers, we were being legislated for by both of them. In the European Parliament, we still are, because we always are. People who believe the Provisional Army Council to be the sovereign body throughout Ireland may not take their seats at Westminster. But they do at Strasbourg. And so on, and on, and on.
What is sensible, mainstream or moderate about any of this? Or about anyone who advocates or defends it?
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Have you ever thought of placing an article somewhere about the tradition of Labour Euroscepticism and setting out your five points for reforming the UK-EU relationship, including freeing us from legislation by these assorted undesirables?
ReplyDeleteI've given up trying. It's all in one of my forthcoming books, so it will get into print soon enough. But this week's Speccie manages to feature an article by Daniel Knowles claiming that "Euroscepticism is not just for Tories any more" and suggesting that there has been a 20-year divide between an anti-EU Conservative Party and a pro-EU Labour Party.
ReplyDeleteI realise that he is too young to remember the three times as many Labour MPs as Conservatives who voted against Maastricht (and if he had relied on the media at the time, then he would have been none the wiser anyway), or really even to remember that the 1997 Election was a choice between joining the euro under Chancellor Clarke or staying out under Chancellor Brown. But that is not an excuse.
As you know, Mr L, people who have never expressed a word of regret for being Communists, Trotskyites, neo-Nazis and neo-Fascists are now what is now called the centre ground and everything else is classified as extreme and insane, refused a hearing as you have so often discovered.
ReplyDeleteThat said, everyone who is anyone is looking forward to the book. Congratulations on getting such a prestigious publisher, in fact congratulations on getting it published in Britain at all. As you have been told before but didn't need to be, don't hold your breath for reviews in the London papers. America and elsewhere might be a different matter. Your friends on The American Conservative will review even if nobody in the country formerly known as Great Britain does. The Mail on Sunday still reviews Peter Hitchens but only they do and he works for them.