Labour should use EU to split Tories
October 19, 2006 by Ken
Filed under Political Humbug
Anthony Giddens one-time director of the London School of Economic, suggests in an article for Prospect Magazine “Labour should use EU to split Conservatives” at the next election.
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He argues that Labour should use “
The Tories should be pushed to say in detail what Euroscepticism, as they practice or propose it, actually means.”
The answer is that Giddens is falling into the trap of his own way of thinking, if he believes that Cameron is pandering to Eusceptics he is not reading the signs. We also want to know in detail what the Conservatives stance on the EU will be. So we would be quite pleased if the Labour Party does take up on this suggestion at least the EU will get a look in at the next election.
Technorati Tags: Tony Blair, David Cameron, Conservatives
Perry, Yes quite right! Only a rabid Euphile could belive otherwise. but then as far as they are concerned anything short of outright worship of the EU and all its accomplishments? is tending towards Eusceptic.
" On the one hand, Cameron is pandering to traditional Tory hostility to the EU"Really? In what way is he pandering to it? He has baulked at even indulging in the mere token gesture of withdrawing from the Euro-integrationist EPP in the European parliament. Cameron has made it absolutely crystal clear you could not force a sheet of paper between the view of himself and Tony Blair regarding the EU.
Juraj M sorry by your use of over exuberant rhetoric you have just shot your own fox.
I am a european investor in the UK. Over the last 20 years my family’s companies have invested £75 million. We provide employment with decent (european style) conditions to our 328 employees. In recent years (particularly when the UK didn’t set a course to join the euro) we stopped our investment as we now perceive the UK economy as a lopsided bet on a japan-circa-early-90es-style property bubble. Accordingly we have divested any real estate in the UK which we feel is "irrationally exuberant" and is very likely to crash. We feel that this is true even with the stimulus of running a very aggressively competitive tax and worker rights regime within the single market in effect taking investment which would otherwise be in other european countries to the UK. Given this fact we are alarmed by the hysterical quality in British euroscepticism. We feel there is a public hysteria whipped up by the Murdoch press which may sell newspapers but its not in the interests of this country. The influence R Murdoch has over Britain via the Times the Sun and Sky over Britain is of Berlusconian proportions.We have already drawn plans to reduce our exposure to the UK for purely economic reasons, we may well relocate entirely in Bratislava, Slovakia if the same nationalistic rhetoric persists in making us feel that there is a risk of withdrawal. So far we have found that new europe has much better educated and productive people and policies that are in line with reality. The UK is becoming bureaucratic not due to Brussels, its the unresponsive overpriced and low quality services and property but also there is widespread dishonesty in Banking and insurance and business services, it is generally bad value for money. Banks in particular are a law on to themselves. The personal loan bubble is likely to burst along with the housing one.The fact that UK employees have much less security and rights than the rest of the EU has made up for the currency risk so far, but if this overpriced and overconfident country continues its direction in pulling out of the EU project this will give us reasons to think pull out our investments from the UK altogether.