The task of rebuilding the Labour party might be an arduous one but at least, how shall I put it delicately, at least you are not the Tory party, about to blow itself up on Europe all over again.
In fact, should anyone need a break from their busy schedule of agonising and self-flagellation, they need to look no further for solace than the opposite benches.
Most seasoned political commentators had assumed that, following a decisive victory and having obtained a clear mandate, the prime minister had staved off a battle on Europe among his own backbenchers until after the completion of the renegotiation he is about to embark on.
But while David Cameron is barely back from the first round of informal chats with European leaders and with the referendum bill about to go into its second reading today, civil war is once again in the air in the Conservative ranks. It didn’t take long, did it? I have been on sneaky fag breaks that lasted longer than the post-election honeymoon Cameron enjoyed within his party.
This weekend he got warning that he was under siege from 50 or so of his backbenchers (with a promise of 50 more to come). Like many cat-stroking Bond villains they ‘wish him every success in the renegotiation’ but stand poised to pounce on him at the first sign that he has not colonised France/invaded Germany/burned down the HQ of the European commission /made espresso illegal and/or turned the EU into an annual lager-tasting competition.
Cameron was forced to explain that, when he said that ministers will be forced to back him in the EU referendum or quit their jobs, he in fact meant to say that ministers should feel free to go ahead and stab him in the back. His own cheerleaders in the rightwing press describe him as a backtracking, U-turning prime minister ‘in crisis’.
Earlier the former whip Andrew Mitchell, a man with hard-won personal insight into what ‘blowing the lid’ actually entails, had been warning him that not allowing ministers a free vote on EU could do just that to the Tory party.
It made me think of the priceless Polish expression to describe somebody else’s comedic fiasco: Not my circus, not my monkeys (Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy). It is particularly useful in petty office politics situations, when you are tempted to jump in and resolve a stupid problem which, if you pause and think, turns out to be not your problem at all.
This is not to say that Labour is unanimous on the question of Europe or that fissures won’t emerge among leadership candidates about the best way to deal with the referendum campaign and so on.
But Labour seems to lack the abject hypocrisy of the Conservative Eurosceptic position on Europe: pretending to want change and reform, then raise the bar ridiculously high, fail to even agree on what reform is, what the problems actually are, what success would look like, all the while drawing plans for the great Big Jump into the Dark of Brexit.
As for the growing ‘for Britain’ circus (the Conservative grouping is just the latest iteration of the catchy suffix, joining assorted businesspeople, historians, chefs and so): PR stunts aside it’s time they are challenged explicitly to set out, in detail, what their proposed alternative to EU membership is.
If you are seriously asking the British voters to throw away 40 years of influence and clout in Europe moaning about the EU’s ‘badness’ and hankering for undefined alternatives won’t cut it any longer.
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Paola Buonadonna is media consultant and specialist in European Union affairs. She tweets @Peebi
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So, a “media consultant” cynically exploits the deeply held beliefs of some who believe that Britain should be able to govern itself and pursue its own course in the world, to score cheap political points.
This British voter would willingly throw away 40 years of unnecessary and expensive NGOs, Lobby Groups, and, yes, media consultants, and the anti-democratic faux political institutions of the Brussels empire.
And Britain doesn’t need to belong to the EU to trade and remain friends, there are alternatives:
http://www.eureferendum.com/documents/flexcit.pdf
Those with a aense of history will recall that the government of the Marquess of Salisbury and his nephew by marriage A j Balfour had seemed impregnable in the earliest years of the 20th century following the “win” in the Boer War (a win that obstinately proved to tidy itself up neatly, much as George W Bush got a far less tidy win that he thought he had). But by 1904 the protectionist wing of the Conservatives broke up the uneasy partnerships within and betwen the Tory Party and its Liberal Unionist allies. Within 2 years, Balfour was facing resignations fron his government by both the free traders and the protectionists owing to his inept handling of party discipline. In late 1905 Balfor’s government was so broken up he resigned and handed over government to the Liberals under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman who won a smashing and devastating victory in the 1906 general election.
I see exactly the same happening now, with Cameron at one moment saying anyone wanting to campaign for an EU exit would have to leave his government and the next moment reversing himself. Like John Major before him, he has lost undisputed control over his party (recall that Major no longer had an overall majority by late 1996) and could well find governing impossible by as soon as 2016, never mind referendum year 2017. Of course Cameron may have sufficient pigheadeness not to realise the game’s up and limp on to 2020, grasping one compromised victory after another. But possibly it will only take two net lost by-elections for the men in suits to pay hima visit and give him the current equivlent of a loaded revolver, a small room and 15 minutes to do the decent thing.
Or is this just wishful thinking!
I love the way you dopey no-marks persistently under-estimate Cameron and Osborne.
The Tories have routed every one of the last 7 Labour leaders except the money-grubber who lied to Parliament, started wars and left office markedly richer than when he came in.
You have a little think about that, eh.
This is your 118th trolling comment on Progress Online and as a self-confessed Conservative voter shouldnt you be pestering people on Conservative Home rather thsn here. The only possible meeting of minds between us might be that Rinka died unnecessarily
I’m here to help.
You want an echo chamber so you lose again in 2020, feel free, but I’ll be here to tell you I Told You So.
What a disgrace. A country trying to control its own borders, make its own laws and trade with whomever it likes. We’ll be trying for independence at this rate.
Quite right (again!) but there is no room for smugness in the pro-European camp, hoping that Camerons ‘tergiversations’ (a Roy Jenkins word) will deliver the ‘yes’ vote. The last EU referendum (when Labour gave its own Cabinet a free vote and the right to campaign against each other) saw the public change its mind from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ during the campaign, as Jenkins makes clear in his autobiography. Tories are acutely aware of the Major government’s split leading to three Labour victories as the lowest point in their recent history. They will do anything to avoid a repetition. If Cameron calls for ministerial loyalty during the re-negotiation but then allows Cabinet Ministers a free vote during the campaign, then the Tory ‘no to the EU’ supporters will be able to make a strong case – however shrill the Tory press talks about Cameron’s u-turns and weakness. (Farage beat Clegg, and Hannan/Farage beat Brittan in a recent debate). In contrast, I am not always a backer of my own party (Labour) but I think that Labour is emerging as a party of honest people doing their best for our country on this issue. The Labour leadership could have supported an in/out referendum, and possibly got more popular by doing so, but by the time of the vote, many Brits may see that the fact of having the referendum was not the act of a patriotic government, but the act of a party Leader desperate to keep his party together. I think the EU transcends party loyalty for many of us on both sides (I would certainly leave Labour after 40 years’ membership if it went anti-EU again – it never will, though). The Tories may in future define themselves as the ‘anti-EU’ party – they have been going that way since Heath lost the Leadership to Thatcher. This will make for a tough referendum, if it’s not simply ‘fringe loonies’ that want out of the EU. We have 40 years of gross misrepresentation of the EU to fight. Just look at the some of the ignorant comments here (and that’s ‘Progress’ not the Daily Express). It’s completely obvious to the governments of 27 other European nations, large and small, rich and poor, that their country’s interests are served by being in the EU. It will be a very touch campaign to overcome this ignorance.PS Must remember “Not my circus, not my monkeys – Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy” – clearly Polish accession has bought more than cheaper, better plumbers