‘H’  The Conservative Party and Europe.

 

Michael Howard has promised that Conservative Government will ‘re-negotiate’ the return of our fish.  If others don’t agree, he will legislate in the House of Commons to take them back.

 

This is a cunning plan of those many Conservatives who want to leave the EU, but don’t dare to say so. Spain and Holland, at least, would not want to lose our fish, so they would challenge their repatriation in Luxembourg.

 

 The ‘Court’ would have to declare the UK’s action unlawful, and we would then be faced with climbing down or leaving the EU.

The Conservatives’ other plan is to refuse to ratify the new Constitution, having won the eventual referendum, and allow the others to go ahead, but only in return for the repatriation of (unspecified) powers.  This is less cunning, because the Treaties already allow eight or more other nations to ‘enhance their co-operation’, even if we disagree. (24)

 

One cannot help wondering why the Conservatives don’t simply move to a ‘come out’ policy, bring UKIP back into the fold [Kenneth Clarke would not let his new convert off the leash] and win the next General Election.

 

Their biggest problem is that they are stuck in their mantra:  “ the Single Market is our greatest achievement in the EU.”

 

Yet it is a Single Market legislation, which does most of the damage to our economy.  There will be no compromise with UKIP until the Conservatives come clean on that.  They would also have to explain why they took us into the Project in the first place; and politicians are not good at public confession.’