Tag Archives: William Hague

October 12, 2012 · 10:28 am

Cameron and Hague are being dishonest on Europe

The excellent David Aaronovitch of the Times now joins the FT’s Janan Ganesh in the ranks of national political commentators who are getting to grips with the European Union.

Aaronovitch’s colourful metaphor in yesterday’s Times summed up current Government’s position and showed just how flawed their line on the EU really is.

David had a childhood friend called Denny with whom he played toy soldier games re-enacting the Napoleonic Wars. Denny, the French commander, was, according to Aaronovitch, “dashing, ingenious and fatally elaborate. His plans were complex and daring, involving clever feints and diversions. But to come to fruition they relied on the other players behaving in ways that they simply didn’t. So usually he lost.”

The brutal fact of the matter is that the while Cameron-Hague “route map” may appeal to Eurosceptics, and maybe even those who are lukewarm on the subject, these are not the people Messrs C&H will have to convince.

In order to achieve the holy grail of treaty renegotiation and repatriation of powers from Brussels to London, the British Government will have to convince all 26 other EU member states that this is in their interest, the interest of the EU as a whole. Aside from some justice and home affairs matters where the UK can opt out, the idea that powers will come back to Britain is utter pie in the sky.

I would ask all of you reading this to seriously ask yourself why would the 26 other EU member states agree to the UK taking back powers? EU treaties are exhaustively negotiated and eventually agreed by all the countries. In most instances change can therefore only happen if all member states, or at the very least a substantial majority, agree.

The feral Tory Eurosceptics claim to love the EU single market. In order for trade to be fair across the single market with no country having an unfair advantage or disadvantage, the market is regulated and laws put in place to secure the same treatment for employees across the EU. Membership of the single market therefore confers responsibilities as well as rights.

It is these rights the Tories want to repatriate, to destroy in other words. Employment and social legislation would go as would the equalities agenda. This Conservative-led Government wants the UK to enjoy the privileges of the EU single market without its responsibilities.

I ask you again, why would the other 26 member states confer this special status on the UK? Why would 26 countries who accept the responsibilities as well as the rights of the single market allow one country, who, to be honest they don’t really like, to opt out of the difficult stuff?

The rest of the EU is simply not going to behave as Cameron and Hague want them to. David Aaronovitch’s analysis is far more realistic: In his piece yesterday he puts forward this scenario:

“In the run up to the European elections the Conservatives will announce their commitment to a referendum on Europe based on their negotiations about powers. A year later they’ll go to the country on a manifesto based on negotiating the new balance and promising a referendum based on the results. [Assuming they win the 2015 election which I don’t think they will] they’ll then negotiate – their hand supposedly strengthened by having won an election on those terms – and a referendum will finally be held in 2017 or 2018. In their imaginations the referendum will endorse the newly negotiated position and Britain and possibly a few other countries will take their places, um, somewhere in an imagined optimal adjacent European space, where you get all the advantages of European association and few of the downsides.”

Dream on Messrs Cameron and Hague. I assure you your dishonesty will be found out.

 

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June 27, 2012 · 8:00 am

The BBC World Service is important and should be properly funded

There appears to be no end to our economic woes. Britain’s economy slipped into its second recession since the start of the financial crisis around the turn of the year, and fears of a longer slump have been rising as companies hold back investment. What is more, there has been a sharp deterioration in the outlook for the global economy over the last six weeks.

All this has apparently caused Bank of England governor Mervyn King to back an extra £50bn of quantative easing,

Explaining his position to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, King said, “What has particularly concerned me in the last several months – why I have voted for more easing policy – was my concern about the worsening I see in the position in Asia and other emerging markets, adding “…my colleagues in the United States are more concerned than they were at the beginning of the year about what is happening to the American economy”.

According to the Guardian, Mervyn King went on to say, “We are in the middle of a deep crisis, with enormous challenges to put our own banking system right and challenges for the rest of the world that they are struggling with.”

It is now quite clear  that Britain has not recovered from the 2008/2009 slump that has left many Britons worse off, and fears are rising that another prolonged recession would do lasting damage to the economy.

You would have thought that the Tory-led Coalition Government would realise that it needs all the help it can get to make sure Britain’s interests are recognised in other countries and that the damage caused by the economic crisis is minimised across the world. One way of achieving this aim is through the soft power wielded by the BBC World Service.

The global impact of the World Service was, in fact, graphically illustrated last week when Burmese freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi toured the organisation’s offices, meeting many of the broadcasters she listened to while under house arrest  in Rangoon.

Unbelievably, at the end of 2010 the Foreign Office under William Hague decided to slash the World Service budget by around 20%, or £46m a year, by 2014. As a result the BBC in January 2011 confirmed plans to close five of its 32 World Service language services, estimating that audiences will fall by more than 30 million, from 180 million to 150 million a week.

As if this wasn’t enough, the BBC executive who runs the World Service, Peter Horrocks, has recently asked his journalists to come up with schemes to raise money.

This is surely no way to treat the World Service which truly justifies the over used soubriquet “national treasure”. The cut to its funding by the current Tory-led Government was a major misjudgement which totally underestimated importance of the World Service in boosting Britain’s standing abroad, a vital requirement in these perilous economic times.

I recently had an inkling of how the BBC is perceived when a Swedish MEP told me just how honoured and overjoyed he was to be invited on to the BBC “The Record Europe” programme. David Cameron, William Hague and the other luminaries in the Coalition Cabinet would do well to take such views on board. The BBC is the face and voice of the UK across the world and it benefits Britain enormously. It would be a real tragedy if political dogma were allowed to prejudice this huge asset.

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February 1, 2012 · 7:45 am

Marginalised Cameron tries to defend his EU U-turn

“A veto is not for life, it’s just for Christmas.” Congratulations to Ed Miliband on this perfect one-liner. David Cameron was indeed on the back foot in the House of Commons yesterday answering questions on  the Brussels summit.

The reason – Cameron is trying to look both ways and utterly failing. Britain is a member of the European Union but opted out of, not vetoed, changes to the Lisbon Treaty in December last year. (Thanks to Labour MP Chris Bryant for this succinct wording).

Unable to sustain his threat to prevent the 26 EU member states that signed up to the “fiscal pact” in December from using the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to uphold their agreement, David Cameron was forced into an embarrassing U-turn. He now accepts that the “fiscal pact” countries can use the European institutions to make sure the treaty changes are upheld.  

Cameron is, however, trying to detract from the mess he has made of this whole saga by telling us he will jump on the 25 (the Czech Republic now appears to have joined the UK) if they do anything which harms the EU single market. If this happens, Cameron will attempt to take measures against the treaty signers.

This is yet another example of Cameron nonsense. No issues concerning the single market are related to the changes to the Lisbon Treaty put forward in December. They are separate matters.

Cameron is again coming up with smoke and mirrors just as he did over the repatriation of powers idea. It goes like this: Cameron, himself an arch-Eurosceptic, needs to keep his feral Eurosceptic backbenchers on board, not least because they were instrumental in securing his leadership of the Conservative Party. However, David Cameron is now the Prime Minister of Great Britain and has duties and obligations in the European Union, not to mention the need to maintain relationships with key EU players. Moreover, Conservative policy is to stay in the EU.

So Cameron is really in a bit of a fix. He cannot fulfil his obligations to all sides. So he’s doing a bit of both and being mightily unsuccessful in the process. The Eurosceptics are still not happy while Jack Straw echoed the feelings of many when he said yesterday that “outside the (EU) door is not a good place to be.”

Never underestimate the extent of  the UK’s marginalisation in the EU under David Cameron’s leadership. Taking the British Conservative MEPs out of the centre-right European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament massively annoyed Angela Merkel. The opt-out, not veto, in Brussels on December 9 caused French President Sarkozy to refuse to shake Cameron’s hand. Merkel and Sarkozy, always an intriguing double act, are growing ever closer with Merkel pledged to support Sarkozy’s presidential election campaign, according to the Financial Times.

 Being a member of an important organisation but not fully committed to it strikes me as a completely ridiculous position. Would David Cameron and William Hague take the same view on NATO? 

We are in the EU, and have been for nearly 40 years. While it is by no means perfect, Britain is surely better in the European Union than lost in the twilight zone outside, especially since the UK could take a leading role if our leaders wished to do so.

Other European countries see working together as a real advantage and many not yet in the EU are very keen to join.

The British idea that we are better off alone is a myth from a past imperial age. Yet even then, Britain itself was never really alone. Since the 18th century we had a world-wide empire to back us up. Now that is no longer there, our only tenable world role is to be a major player in the EU.

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January 24, 2012 · 9:53 am

The EU should keep talking to Iran

William Hague, along with all the other EU foreign ministers, was wrong to impose economic sanctions on Iran yesterday.

It is, of course, true that the Iranian government is disingenuous to talk about wanting a nuclear capability only for energy. With massive oil reserves this really does not ring true. Will their next argument be that Iran wants nuclear energy so it can go green?

I hasten to add that I do not support  the current government in Iran in any way shape or from, and particularly disapprove of the Iran’s treatment of women as second class citizens. I also apply my own personal boycott by not appearing on Press TV,  a television service supported by the Iranian government.

The difference though is that this is my personal decision, not a government decision.

The EU and the West in general needs to talk to the Iranian government.

We also need to plan for the inevitability that Iran, together with other countries, will obtain nuclear technology. Surely the experience of oil sanctions on Iraq should teach us that this way forward will not work. The sanctions will be breached. They will be used by the Iranian government to justify their actions.

We also run the risk of increasing oil prices at a time when the British and European economies are in poor shape following the transgressions of various bankers.

The EU imposition of sanctions against Iran seems a desperate last push to stop the inevitable. Governments in the West need to plan for a multipolar world recognising the inevitability of  nuclear weapons. This is not an easy position and one which I would find hard to accept, while at the same time understanding that it is what needs to be done. 

I say all this from the perspective of someone who has campaigned against nuclear weapons all of my political life.  I truly believe that Britain, and indeed the rest of the world, would be better off without destructive nuclear  capability.

Having said that,  I also believe governments have to be realistic about the extent and reach of nuclear proliferation across the globe and put forward sensible policies for damage limitation. It is inevitable that, as an increasing number of scientists gain nuclear knowledge, more countries will have the opportunity to develop nuclear capability.

As we know, several countries, not all of them stable democracies,  actually do have nuclear weapons.  Pakistan is a case in point.  It is also highly probable that Israel has them. The situation regarding Israel obviously has to be taken into account in putting forward  any policy on Iran . 

The EU imposition of sanctions against Iran seems a desperate last push to stop the inevitable.

For all our sakes the EU  needs accept the reality of the international situation rather than undertaking measures which could potentially  alienate dangerous regimes across the world.

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October 24, 2011 · 1:16 pm

Tories Try to Play the Blame Game

The current government cannot continue to blame poor economic performance on the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. 

That was the central argument in a great article in today’s Guardian by Larry Elliott.  You can read it by following the link here.

There are two things that strike me about the assertion that Britain’s economic fortunes are being so disastrously affected by problems on the continent.  Firstly, it is a very convenient excuse.  It’s not the first time I’ve said that the Conservative led coalition are leading the charge on these cuts because of their ideology, not through a considered view of what would be best for the British economy.  The fact that things are so close to the brink in Europe provides a very convenient distraction from quite how damaging the policies of Osborne and Cameron are. 

Secondly, if that is what they genuinely believe, I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to expect them to do something about it.  Sadly, they seem rather incapable.  It’s very illuminating to see today at the crisis summit, Sarkozy reportedly lambasted Cameron for trying to “tell us what to do”, allegedly saying that he was “sick” of Mr Cameron’s criticism.  On a day where Cameron’s own party are forcing a vote in the Commons on whether or not we should have a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, he can’t be all that surprised to find himself rebuffed by his fellow European heads of government.

David Cameron is right to say that the Eurozone crisis matters to Britain, as they remain our largest trading partner.  But the difficulties in Europe are no excuse for the lacklustre recovery the UK has been experiencing in the last two years.

I also wanted to briefly mention William Hague’s comments on the House of Commons vote today.  In a quite extraordinary statement Hague said that the government couldn’t support the motion because ‘it wasn’t in either governing parties’ manifesto’.  The bare faced hypocrisy of that statement would be amusing if weren’t so infuriating.  I’m glad the Conservatives aren’t supporting the motion, but it would have nice if they could have used that kind of thinking when proposing changes to the NHS or raising top-up fees.

Anyway, the UK economy remains in dire straits and unemployment continues to rise.  A major step towards averting an even worse crisis in the Eurozone may or may not be taken this week.  What is certain is that the Tory led coalition is either unwilling or unable to do anything about either problem.

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October 5, 2011 · 2:43 pm

The Tories remain split on Europe

Europe is certainly proving interesting for the Tories at their annual shindig – I hesitate to call their let’s pat ourselves on the back and tell the world how wonderful we are jamboree a conference.

The depth of the Tory problem on Europe is becoming ever clearer. Even arch-Eurosceptic and (former) darling of the unreconstructed Tory right, William Hague, has been forced to state that any fundamental change in Britain’s relations with Europe is not on the cards at the moment.  Quite some change, shown on the Today Programme this morning when it was suggested that the former Tory leader was “put on this planet” to reduce the EU’s influence over Britain.

In order, it seems, to salvage some of his past glory, Hague came out with all the usual anti-EU rhetoric in his speech earlier today. “The EU doesn’t need a single extra bureaucrat. But it does need burdens on businesses lifted,” he proclaimed. “It is now acknowledged that when we said joining the Euro would be a disaster for Britain, we were right.” And, just for good measure: “The EU has more power over our national life than it should have.”

I would be amazed if the grassroots Tories go for this empty rhetoric. As the Guardian’s live blog said: “What’s the good in having a Conservative government if it can’t step away from Europe, they ask?”

David Cameron in his keynote speech to the Tory conference still in progress as I write this blog post, has given us a master class in cowardice. Instead of dealing with the concerns on the EU his Conservative Party members feel so deeply, all we got was a cheap jibe at the EU for issuing a Directive, a small part of which mentioned the potential dangers of people with diabetes driving cars.    

But it goes much further that that. Many of these grassrooters want a referendum on leaving the EU altogether. And it’s not just the jamboree attendees. Mark Pritchard MP, Secretary of the 1922 Committee is demanding a vote on Britain’s membership of the EU while George Eustice MP, a close aide of David Cameron wants a “new relationship” with the European Union.

Splits are never good for political parties. When the governing party is so deeply divided with one particular topic – membership of the European Union – a running sore incapable of healing, it’s very bad news indeed. The Tories will not be able to rely for ever on the Lib-Dems to suppress their internal wrangles.

It’s down to David Cameron to resolve the Tory divisions on Europe. He and William Hague have told the British people there will be no referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU. I suspect many Tory jamboree goers and their local Conservative associations know it is simply not possible to repatriate powers from the EU back to the UK as Cameron et al are trying to claim in order to show they are doing something on Europe. So the Tories remain split – hardly and election winner.

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May 18, 2011 · 12:14 pm

Reform of the House of Lords is about modernising Britain not bashing Nick Clegg

So Nick Clegg’s attempt to bring about the hundred year old demand to reform of the House of Lords is getting mixed reviews. While I agree Clegg is a man who looks increasingly desperate, badly needing to deliver a constitutional proposition, I deeply disagree with those who tell us reform of the outmoded way we govern ourselves in this country is not important and at the bottom of the political agenda.

The way a country runs its government is profoundly important in the way that government uses its power. The British system is deeply divided, not only encouraging, but positively demanding, tribal loyalty. This tribal loyalty, in turn, leads in turn to massive recriminations when governments cannot deliver what tribal loyalty demands.

It is this, I believe, which is to some extent responsible for Labour’s lacklustre performance at the present time in that  Labour tribalism is seen to have failed. The recent local election results were not as good as they should have been, while Scotland, once Labour’s strongest heartland, was a total disaster.

What is more, tribalism suits the Tories far more than it suits Labour; the Conservatives are tribalists by their very nature. This is hardly surprising since the basis of our current system of government was laid down in the 19th century by Tories and Whigs, the latter being little different from the Tories at the time. When the Conservative and Liberal Parties emerged later, nothing changed in any profound way. Both Parties were upper class bastions of the rich until well after the First World War.

This is the system under which Britain is still ruled – tribal, confrontational and designed by and for the wealthy. With so many old Etonians and millionaires – Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Hague,  Huhne (for now) and others – in the current Cabinet, you would be justified in wondering how much we have actually progressed.

It’s also a system which does Labour no favours. This, more than anything else, is why I think constitutional reform is so important. If we want a fair and equal society where social mobility is the norm, where state education is given priority and social cohesion is an accepted part of the political agenda, we need a broad-based and inclusive government. Of course there will be political differences and differing views on what needs to be done, and there will still be Labour, Conservative and Liberal-Democrats. We should, however, have a fairer and more open system so that we all work for the public good, not for our own tribal ends.

Most other European countries have achieved this. All or nothing, shout at your opponents until they give in rather than look for intelligent compromise is not the way other EU member states do business. Most also have better state social security and pensions systems, shorter working hours and arguably better education up to the statutory school leaving age.

Back to Britain. As far as the House of Lords is concerned, I find the idea that the second chamber of the Mother of Parliaments is appointed by the Prime Minister little short of abhorrent. This is patronage and is therefore open to less than honourable dealings. I will say no more, but I’m sure you know what I mean.   

Given this, I am always pleased to see new thinking. Democracies, even, may be especially, one so in need of reform as ours, need thinkers, people who can see beyond the box and come up with new ideas.

I am therefore glad to see Ed  Miliband has endorsed Blue Labour. The recent election results show Labour needs to listen and Blue Labour is, I believe, part of this process. However, In do have one word of warning. Labour should aim to appeal across the board and get away from tribalism. It is only by leading the way that we may achieve this. Britain will be better if, and when, we all become more open and less obsessed by narrow party interest.

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January 17, 2011 · 12:26 pm

Europe Proves Tricky Again for Cameron

Last week the coalition government’s Europe Bill was voted through the first stage of the parliamentary process.  The bill is the result of Cameron’s promise to the eurosceptic wing of his party to hold a referendum in the instance of any further treaty changes and to ‘enshrine the primacy of parliamentary sovereignty’.

I have followed the progress of this particular policy with interest as it seems an area where the Tory party and coalition government are liable to run in to difficulties.  And I was proved right when the eurosceptic wing, whom the bill was trying to appease, stated loudly and clearly that the bill did not go far enough.

In the end the rebellion was neither strong enough nor large enough to defeat the bill, but I doubt very much that this is the last of Cameron and Hagues’ problems.  The most vocal of the rebels, Bill Cash MP, is unlikely to ever be truly satisfied unless we have a retrospective referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which is impossible, or withdraw from the EU altogether.

It is worth noting that the Lib Dems, a broadly pro-EU party, also voted for the bill.  This is almost certainly because they recognised it as largely meaningless.  It is unlikely to have any real effect the UK’s relationship with EU.  I guess that means that in a way I agree with Bill Cash and his ilk, not something you’re going to hear me say very often.

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October 29, 2010 · 8:41 am

David Cameron is sinking in a Sea of Troubles

If you were so inclined, you could almost feel sorry for David Cameron.

Yesterday Boris took to the airwaves being utterly Borisly bonkers talking about “Kosovo style social cleansing” in relation to the coalition’s housing benefit proposals while pole cat Tebbit regaled us with “Vichy style betrayal” on the EU budget. Wow, it’s not exactly cricket is it?

Some us thought any tensions within the coalition would be between the two parties, Liberal-Democrat against Conservative. Instead we have Tory against Tory, and it’s stratospheric. The London Mayor goes leftie in a big way and a high-profile grandee delivers a devastating right-wing one liner.

One, of course, one is right while the other is wrong.

I never thought I would say that Boris Johnson is right, but he is on the proposed housing benefit cuts. There is general agreement that a cap on housing benefit will drive people out of high rent properties in central London. Local authorities in the capital have already block-booked bed and breakfast accommodation out of London, as reported in my blog post on Monday. Mark Field, Conservative MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, said the same on the Today programme this morning.

As for Lord Tebbit, he is one of a number of Eurosceptics spitting blood at what they perceive as David Cameron’s failure. Daniel Hannan MEP on Channel 4 News yesterday evening and Roger Helmer MEP on the Today programme this morning were not at all shy in coming forward. Their message was simple and direct: Cameron should have stood firm and not agreed to any increase in the EU budget.

Roger Helmer’s argument is interesting if completely unrealistic. He thinks that Cameron should have held out against the treaty change Angela Merkel is demanding to improve the stability of the Euro, in return for a freeze in the EU budget.

In the event Cameron has gone with the European Council’s 2.9% with hardly a murmur. The claim by William Hague that Cameron has achieved some kind of consensus with other EU leaders that the next EU financial perspectives from 2014 to 2020 will take account of member states’ efforts to move their deficits on to a more realistic path will, I am sure, be seen as the political spin it obviously is. 2014 is a long time away and 2020 even further. Agreement on an unpredictable future which starts four years hence is really not difficult to find. We can all coalesce around a fantasy.

So the Tories are splitting, and the government has very little in the way of either a defence or constructive forward thinking.

We may well be seeing the beginning of Europe emerging in reality, as well as speculation, as the coalition’s fault line.       

PS  Just to give you further evidence that David Cameron was completely wrong to accuse Labour MEPs of voting in favour the EU budget last week, you may like to click on this link to the Channel 4 News blog fact checker.

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October 8, 2010 · 8:00 am

Hague full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

Wiliam Hague was most interesting at the Conservative Party Conference.  I have watched the Tories’ movements regarding Europe very closely since they formed the Coalition and as a result found his speech very enlightening.

As we all know, the Conservatives had to drop most of their Eurosceptic election promises so that Nick Clegg, who for all his faults is at least pro-European, would be able to justify forming a government with them.  Since then the coalition government, far from standing up to what some Tories might call the encroaching powers of the EU, has accepted many new laws from Brussels, including one which hands some powers over financial transactions to the European Commission.

It is, however, becoming increasingly evident that there are those in the Tory party who are very unhappy with the way things are going with Europe.  And it was such a promising start for the Europsceptics. David Cameron took the Tories out of the EPP, the centre right political grouping in the European Parliament. (Tory MEPs then  formed an alliance with far right elements whom Nick Clegg described as a ”bunch of nutters”). Cameron also promised to repatriate various powers to do with employment law.

In an attempt to assuage the Eurosceptics’ doubts, William Hague made an impassioned speech to the Conservative party conference that outlined plans to introduce a sovereignty clause on to the statute books in the United Kingdom asserting that EU law only has primacy in the UK because the government allows it to be that way.  He also made some forceful comments about governments being able to “undo” the things they have done. 

All well and good for playing to the Eurosceptic core in the Tories you might think, but unfortunately, if we believe what the Daily Mail has reported, many of them aren’t buying this entirely superficial gesture.  The Mail has a quotation from a Tory MP, Douglas Carswell, saying ‘This is politicians using clever words to appear to be preventing further European integration when they are not.’ 

Attention has so far focused on the internal strife within the Lib-Dems as a result of their involvment in the Coalition.  William Hague has now shown that Europe is proving, as predicted, a difficult issue for the Tories.  In the not too distant past, European issues almost undid John Major’s government leaving him significantly weakened.  If David Cameron has any political antennae left, he will be desperate not to have Europe anywhere near any agenda. However, the decision doesn’t seem to be down to him but rather his restless grass roots.

Seemingly, Wiliam Hague’s attempts to placate the Eurosceptic wing of their party aren’t working quite as well as they might have hoped, as they can see it for what it is, sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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