Europe must protect its culture from mass migration, warns Tusk
Got out on the wrong side of the bed, Boris?
THE EU needs to protect its ‘cultural community’ from mass migration by imposing tougher border controls, the European Council president warned yesterday.
In a strongly-worded intervention, Donald Tusk said that further measures were needed because EU countries are ‘different from the outside world’.
The striking comments will be seen as an attempt to repair relations with countries such as Hungary and Poland, which have clashed with Brussels after taking a hard line on immigration.
Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland, said: ‘We are a cultural community, which doesn’t mean that we are better or worse – we are simply different from the outside world. Our openness and tolerance cannot mean walking away from protecting our heritage.’
He added: ‘We have the right and obligation to care for what distinguishes us from other cultures – not in order to be against someone, but to be ourselves. Without a feeling of superiority, but with a feeling of justified pride.’
While EU leaders have claimed recent ‘unity’ on key policy issues, the bloc is still in the midst of a crisis over how to deal with illegal immigration from Africa and the Middle East.
Mr Tusk said Brussels had a ‘duty’ to protect its external borders, adding that the huge migration in 2015 led to an awareness ‘of the need to defend our territory’. But in a warning to hard-line leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, he also pointed to EU non-discrimination rules and rules on the protection of human rights.
His remarks came as Austria’s leaderin-waiting, Sebastian Kurz, 31, formally announced that he was starting coalition talks with the far-Right Freedom Party, which was founded by former Nazis.
The partnership between Mr Kurz’s People’s Party and the far-Right group could lead to the first neo-Nazi serving as a cabinet minister in an EU country.
CONSERVATIVES have leapt to the defence of an MP who was accused of ‘ McCarthyism’ for asking universities for details of their teaching on Brexit.
Government whip Chris Heaton-Harris suffered a political backlash yesterday after requesting names of professors teaching the topic.
He made the request in a letter sent to every university at the start of this month, also asking for ‘a copy of the syllabus and links to the online lectures’.
After receiving Mr Heaton-Harris’s letter, universities accused him of taking ‘the first step to the thought police’ and branded the move a ‘sinister’ attempt to clamp down on free speech.
But yesterday Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons and a fellow Leave supporter, defended his intentions and said he had every right to ask such questions.
She said it was a ‘very courteous and not at all threatening letter’, adding: ‘Universities are bastions of free speech so to be so horri- fied at somebody asking a simple question with no caveat or demands either implicit or explicit in it, it seems to me to be a bit odd that they should react in such a negative way. He is not compelling anybody to do anything.
‘He is asking a question as a Member of Parliament and I personally don’t see anything sinister about asking that question.’
Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said the reaction had been ‘ludicrous’ and pointed out universities should be ‘out and proud about their teaching, rather than being so defensive’.
He told Radio 4’s PM programme: ‘It’s typical of universities who tend to overreact to any kind of challenge or questioning and try and shut down debate.’ McCarthyism – the practice of making accusations of treason without regard for evidence – is named after US Senator Joseph McCarthy who led attempts to purge alleged Communists in public life the 1950s.
ITV political editor Robert Peston tweeted that the letter was ‘tactless but not McCarthyism,’ branding the reaction ‘hysteria’.
Mr Heaton-Harris, MP for Dav- entry, wrote in his letter to universities: ‘I was wondering if you would be so kind as to supply me with the names of professors at your establishment who are involved in the teaching of European affairs, with particular reference to Brexit. Furthermore, if I could be provided with a copy of the syllabus and links to the online lectures which relate to this area I would be much obliged.’ In response, the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten of Barnes – a former Conservative Party chairman – accused Mr HeatonHarris of ‘idiotic Leninism’.
He said: ‘If he doesn’t know that universities are autonomous, that universities aren’t like Chinese reeducation camps, then he doesn’t know very much about what it’s like to live in a free society.’
Professor David Green, vice- chancellor of Worcester University, branded it ‘sinister,’ adding: ‘Here is the first step to the thought police, the political censor and newspeak, naturally justified as “the will of the British people”.’
And Kevin Featherstone, head of the European Institute at the London School of Economics, told The Guardian: ‘The letter reflects a past of a McCarthyite nature. It smacks of asking: Are you or have you ever been in favour of Remain?’ Mr Heaton-Harris attempted to clarify his intentions on Twitter, writing: ‘To be absolutely clear, I believe in free speech in our universities and in having an open and vigorous debate on Brexit.’
But Downing Street disowned his comments, with Theresa May’s spokesman saying: ‘This was sent in his capacity as an MP, not a government representative.
‘What the Prime Minister has always been very clear on is her respect for the freedom and independence of universities.’
Mr Heaton-Harris was promoted to vice-chamberlain of Her Majesty’s household in the Whip’s Office after this summer’s election.
London’s financial crown is safe despite efforts by European rivals to lure banks away after Brexit, former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg said.
The 75-year- old was speaking yesterday at the opening of his financial information company’s new European HQ in London.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘There will be some movement out of London to some other places, which is unfortunate, but nevertheless London will still be the centre.
‘It is family-friendly and it is English- speaking, it has culture and it has scale and transportation, it has a good mayor and a good government.’
‘Very courteous and not at all threatening’