Holding The Centre

Those of us who remember 66 invisible Labour MPs who voted against Maastricht when only 22 Tories did, or 44 who voted against the European Finance Bill when the Whip was withdrawn from half a dozen Tories for doing nothing more than abstain, were entirely unsurprised that neither Newsnight, nor The Record, nor Today in Parliament, reported one word of the sterling speeches delivered by John Cryer, Roger Godsiff, Ian Davidson, Kate Hoey, Kelvin Hopkins and Frank Field.

Ed Miliband should promise legislation with five simple clauses and no need, either for never-ending "renegotiation" (by whom, exactly?), or for a costly and distracting referendum. He should spell out clearly that we are presently subject to the legislative will of Stalinists and Trotskyists, neo-Fascists and neo-Nazis, neoconservatives such as now run France and Germany, members of Eastern Europe's kleptomaniac nomenklatura, people who believe the Provisional Army Council to be the sovereign body throughout Ireland, and Dutch ultra-Calvinists who will not have women as candidates.

No wonder that last night's Labour rebels included Ian Davidson, Frank Field, Roger Godsiff and Kate Hoey, the heirs of Douglas Jay and Peter Shore. No wonder that last night's Tory rebels included Robin Walker and Sir Peter Tapsell, one the literal heir of Peter Walker, the other the same old Peter Tapsell, as splendidly Keynesian, pro-Commonwealth and anti-neoconservative as ever. And no wonder that the Liberal Party and the SDP, both of which still exist, are now so very critical of the EU. We are the centre. The federalists are the extremists and the anti-democrats.