More on the "real" euroscepticism as displayed by the Conservative Party or, at least, some of its members, who remain nameless (apart from the few we know about already) and well below the parapet whenever a vote is required. Iain Martin, who, in the past assured us of the Conservatives' basic euroscepticism and was stunned by the "strange death of Conservative euroscepticism" before assuring us that Conservative rebellions over Europe are about to happen, then doing it again, is at it once more.
Half the Tory MPs, he tells us excitedly, want to come out of the EU and lists all the reasons why they might want to do so, reasons that will not exactly surprise readers of this blog. Liam Fox and Iain Duncan Smith are particularly angry. Mr Fox, in my hearing, made it clear that he thought a close defence alliance with France will have no more effect on NATO than a close alliance with America did and since Mr Duncan Smith is busy playing the meaningless populist game of calling on British firms to hire British school leavers whether they want to or not, it does not seem to me to be of any importance what else they might like to say very quietly to Mr Martin.
Still, whatever happens, it is the Conservatives we should trust on the European issue, is it not? Hmmm. That Porcine Air Force is about to take off.
You have of course blogged often before about your scepticism regarding the euroscepticism of the Conservative Party. I am not quite so pessimistic. My feeling is that the majority of the party is in fact eurosceptic, but they are cowards. They are too afraid to defy the whip. Moreover, there is a strong element of 'group think'. Cameron and Osborne in particular suffer from this, I think. They move in a small circle of people and their thinking becomes uniform because they don't have the strength of character to oppose the accepted view. ('Sharing the proceeds of growth' comes to mind.) All this is very well described in 'Le Rhinoceros' by Ionesco, which I recommend. But, just as in the play, I believe that at some stage there will be an about-turn. The EU is bound to keep antagonising the public more and more and at some stage a line will be crossed. This is what usually happens to dictators: they go one step too far. I predict that at that stage, Cameron et al. will tell you that they were eurosceptics all along!
ReplyDeleteYou have of course blogged often before about your scepticism regarding the euroscepticism of the Conservative Party. I am not quite so pessimistic. My feeling is that the majority of the party is in fact eurosceptic, but they are cowards. They are too afraid to defy the whip. Moreover, there is a strong element of 'group think'. Cameron and Osborne in particular suffer from this, it seems to me. They move in a small circle of people and their thinking becomes uniform because they don't have the strength of character to oppose the accepted view. ('Sharing the proceeds of growth' comes to mind.) All this is very well described in 'Le Rhinoceros' by Ionesco, which I recommend. But, just as in the play, I believe that at some stage there will be an about-turn. The EU is bound to keep antagonising the public more and more and at some stage a line will be crossed. This is what usually happens to dictatorships: they go one step too far. I predict that at that stage, Cameron et al. will tell you that they were eurosceptics all along!
ReplyDeleteThe question which springs to mind in that case is: what group are the whips drawn from and who chooses them, if the majority of the Conservative Party are EUrosceptic?
ReplyDelete