Foreign Secretary made a great case for leaving the EU
IT’S not often I’m simply baffled by an argument made by a politician. To be honest, there’s very little that’s ever original about politics or politicians. Most good ideas are based on common sense and it’s usually only the mad ideas that are truly original.
But at the weekend I heard something that was truly original. And it didn’t come from a source that is usually associated with madness.
Think of Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, and it’s unlikely any image will spring to mind. Mr Hammond is blessed with what one might charitably describe as an ability to bring calm.
Uncharitably, that means he is the embodiment of the politician as manager rather than thinker – a man who leaves no discernible trace in whatever job he does and who never says anything remotely interesting.
But as Foreign Secretary he is, nominally at least, at the heart of our so- called membership renegotiation with the EU. And on Sunday he gave a big set- piece interview to Andrew Marr that was supposed to help convince us that we should back David Cameron’s determination that we remain in the EU.
And he was, to put it mildly, interesting. I thought I’d heard all the Remain arguments, which revolve around fear of what might happen if we leave. But I was wrong.
Mr Hammond came up with an argument that was so original, unique and unexpected that I’m still not sure what he actually meant to say.
According to the Foreign Secretary, a key reason why we should stay in the EU is that if we leave, it might fall apart. Yes, really.
HE appears to think a persuasive argument for us to vote to stay is that if we leave, others will too. As he put it: the “contagion” of our quitting the EU would soon spread to other member states and we would only be able to watch from the sidelines as the EU “lurches in very much the wrong direction”. Er, isn’t that the point?
That’s not an argument to stay. It’s an argument to leave. Since when did the British people have a duty to prop up the EU against other countries’