Simon Heffer:
England was lucky to have a civil war in 1642. This was not only because it lanced the boil of a king who wished to replace parliamentary government with a form of tyranny, but because since the Thirty Years War was on at the time none of the country’s main continental enemies was available to attack it.
The same is true today of the Tory party. The Prime Minister can match Charles I in high-handedness, as he showed last week in his dismissal of his MPs’ need to consider the predominantly anti-EU views of their constituency associations. The outrage this has caused will be clear from the letter we have published today. Charles I was, however, straight, something one struggles to say of David Cameron given his representation of the so-called “deal” he hopes to conclude with the EU as a basis for our continued membership.
Labour is in no position to capitalise on strife in the Tory party. Jeremy Corbyn is wildly unpopular among MPs, whose priority is removing him. The Tories have needed to lance their boil on Europe for decades. Now is their chance to do so, while inflicting minimum damage on themselves. Their leader and those loyal to him are determined to sell out by urging acceptance of a “deal” that changes almost nothing, and addresses none of the fundamental problems with the corrupt, antidemocratic, Soviet-style EU. Tories should not be afraid to say so, and to strive to expose this dishonesty.
Not only are Tory activists and backbenchers furious at being patronised and deceived. So too are ministers who believe Britain’s future lies outside the EU. The Prime Minister’s campaign to win approval for a deal that his 27 fellow heads of government have yet to ratify is under way: yet none of those ministers who wishes to protest is allowed to do so. Rather like the Noble Revolt of 1642, ministers should call his bluff on this. Would he really sack perhaps a quarter of the payroll if they did? To judge from what
readers tell me, their principal concern about Europe is our inability to govern ourselves: and this becomes especially acute in the matter of border control. Nothing Mr Cameron “achieved” during his discussions with Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, last week, comes remotely close to addressing that. No sovereignty will be repatriated. No freedom to close our borders to people from Europe will be restored. These were not even on the agenda.
Even the “deal” on benefits – the so-called “emergency handbrake” – requires permission from the European Parliament, which can revoke it at will. Before the last election Mr Cameron talked about “treaty change”. There is no treaty change, and there was never going to be, which is why what he persists in calling a “renegotiation” was nothing of the sort. It was an attempt to bend existing rules to give him something he could misrepresent to the British people as a great triumph. How stupid does he think we are?
The Tory party must not be afraid to expose the fraudulence of the claim that a vote to stay would give us a more autonomous existence within the EU. It would not, and many MPs feel their personal credibility would suffer if they said so. We would still be a huge net contributor; we would still have no say over who could enter Britain from the EU; and Parliament would still be required to approve directives from Brussels that were contrary to our interests and principles. And do not believe the rot about our exemption from the commitment to “ever closer union”. The EU exists to create such a Union, and everything it does, whether it says so or not, is directed to that end.
Mr Cameron could not make our masters in Brussels discuss anything that really mattered to the British people. Therefore he manufactured a short and inoffensive list of items that don’t matter, manipulated a minor drama about them, and was given something to which his PR skills could be applied in order to make it seem he had done something remarkable. The press, fortunately, is doing a fine job at exposing this: but once some of his colleagues announce that the emperor has no clothes it will be very difficult to make a logical case to stay in.
But then even though Mr Tusk’s concessions are trivial and irrelevant, there are rumblings that countries in Eastern Europe will not approve them. I find that hard to believe, because Germany will do what it traditionally does at such times, and bribe those countries to toe the line – a new motorway here, a new airport there, and so on. While it would be interesting for Mr Cameron to endure the humiliation of not getting an agreement next week, I suspect he won’t. Perhaps they will reopen Croydon Airport specially for his return home. Indeed Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, has indicated the deal – like Chamberlain’s – is “reversible”.
Tory MPs continue to tell me that their activists – who have the vote in the next leadership election – are overwhelmingly in favour of leaving the EU. So anyone who wishes to succeed Mr Cameron as leader must think carefully before pinning his or her colours to his very unsteady mast. But then any Tory MP who wishes to represent the overwhelming feeling of the party in the country must think carefully before supporting this “deal” too.
It is no coincidence that the only people to speak forcefully in support of the “deal” are detached members of the political elite, and the deracinated mouthpieces of big business. Many Tories understand the toxicity, in moral and electoral terms, of being seen in such company. With an election more than four years away and Labour in ruins, the moment is right for them to act according to their consciences. When the civil war is over there will be time enough to undertake repairs: and to continue to govern a country that, I hope, will by then have regained the right to govern itself.
Do not believe the rot about our exemption from the commitment to ‘ever closer union’