Little is to be expected on the EU


Today, I have spent considerable time1 discussing tomorrow’s European Union Bill. We seem to be in the following bizarre situation:

  • Some think the LibDems have given substantial ground.
  • Some Conservatives think the Bill is a victory.
  • Conservative Eurosceptics seem to find the Bill, shall we say, “unsatisfactory”.
  • Various figures accept that the current EU settlement lacks democratic legitimacy, but think that there is nothing we can do about it, except pass tomorrow’s Bill.

Much will be written about this Bill, I don’t doubt, but not here. What is the point? Until the public, right across the country, make it clear they want progress on the EU, little is to be expected.

Truly, British democracy has now entered The Twilight Zone.

For my own part, I agree with the Prime Minister in 2007, when he said of the EU:

It is the last gasp of an outdated ideology, a philosophy that has no place in our new world of freedom, a world which demands that we fight this bureaucratic over-reach and lead Europe into the hope and potential of a new, post-bureaucratic age.

I hope we have the chance to get on with it soon.

You can find my EU posts here.

  1. I also covered health, Pakistan, tuition fees, road transport and a particularly trying case of state failure in criminal justice, amongst other things. And people wonder why the Chamber is so often empty… []

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