“So now we know: no repatriation, no renegotiation, business as usual. December’s ‘veto’ turns out to be nothing of the kind; at best, it is a partial opt-out. Britain had asked for concessions in return for allowing the other member states to use EU institutions and structures for their fiscal compact. No such concessions were forthcoming, but we have given them permission anyway. The only difference is that, because the deal was done in a separate treaty structure, the PM doesn’t have to put anything through the House of Commons. We had a generational opportunity to improve our relationship with the EU. That opportunity has passed.

“It’s time for the country as a whole to settle the question. This morning, the People’s Pledge announced the most ambitious plan ever for an In/Out plebiscite. It will hold a series of constituency-wide referendums, first in one seat, then in ten, then in a hundred. Every registered voter will get a ballot, the poll will be overseen by the Electoral Reform Society and, in each referendum, People’s Pledge activists will have a major presence on the ground. (See here which constituencies will be in the first tranche).

“I am confident that the campaign will succeed. After today, no one can plausibly claim that it is possible to get powers back from Brussels while remaining within the EU. Obviously, I hope that Britain will vote to come out: that we will leave a cramped and dwindling customs union and rejoin the wider world. But, either way, I promise to accept the verdict with good grace. Stop fretting about the opinion polls, the timing, the parliamentary arithmetic, the coalition. Ask yourself instead whether a referendum is right in principle. Considered thus, it seems not only desirable, but inevitable. The only question is when.”

Conservative leader Councillor Rodney Chambers, Labour leader Cllr Paul Godwin, Liberal Democrat Deputy leader Cllr Sheila Kearney (in leader Cllr Geoff Juby’s absence) and Independent leader Cllr Andy Stamp have all signed the following letter after news that the Prime Minister David Cameron may be about to launch a public consultation on a Thames Estuary Airport – and throw his weight behind it:

Dear Secretary of State,

COUNCILLOR ANDY STAMP
LEADER OF THE INDEPENDENT GROUP – MEDWAY COUNCIL

The national paper last night revealed that Mr Cameron is expected to launch a consultation on a new airport within weeks, with the expectation that the Conservative Party leader will support a new airport in the South East.

The decision to back a new hub airport in th Thames Estuary will provide a major boost to the Mayor of London’s re-election bid this year. Boris Johnson, who will see a challenge from Labour’s Ken Livingstone in the contest, has been calling for an airport to be built on an artificial island in the estuary – dubbed “Boris Island”.

The announcement had been due to be made on 3rd January, but was blocked by the Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Conservatives claimed it was purely a cynical political move, to avoid a boost to Mr Johnson, who the Liberal Democrats will also be challenging in May.

However, a Liberal Democrat source told The Daily Telegraph that “aviation policy is very sensitive and we didn’t support rushing out an announcement over the New Year.

“The consultation will almost certainly be launched in March and Nick Clegg does not have a fixed view on the outcome.”

The UK is in need of aviation capacity expansion in order to remain a major economic competitor on the world stage, and failure to act now could have dire consequences over the next 50 years.

However, there are also serious enviornmental and safety concerns to building an airport in the Thames Estuary and The View from Medway will be abondoning policy independence and Founding Editor Alan W Collins will be abandoning party loyalty to fiercly and publicly oppose these proposals.

We will be looking at the issues in more detail over the coming days, weeks and months (and, if necessary, years!) and will be fighting alongside every other opponent to the airport (irrespective of party or ideology), focusing energy where it matters: at the heart of government and government influence.

Ladies and gentlemen of Medway: this is no longer an issue we can silently shake our heads in disagreement to when we read it in the paper. The government has stepped up the challenge – and we, too, must step up our opposition.

If you care about Medway, if you care about our countryside, if you care about our landscape, then join the fight. We need to send a clear, consistent and resounding message to the government:

THE PEOPLE OF MEDWAY SAY NO! TO A THAMES ESTUARY AIRPORT!

It is estimated that, by March 2012, Mr Cameron will be presented with an app for his favoured iPad – which will give him access to information from a wealth of news sources, including Google and Twitter, along with up-to-the-minute data from across Whitehall.

The Prime Minister already enjoys using his iPad to read his daily newpapers and blog articles from websites including ConservativeHome as well as listening to the radio and catching up on missed TV.

According to The Times (£), he is an infrequent e-mail user, preferring his staff to follow the formal procedure (official papers on which he can write notes in reply) and using text messaging for less formal discussions with MPs and advisers.

He does, however, make time to play the popular Angry Birds game – along with his Chancellor George Osborne.

The Times also claims that the app may be made available to other ministers and Whitehall staff – and possibly even given a public release – which raises doubts that his red box briefings will be included.

If a public release is offered, it will be interesting to see if it will be exclusively for iPad, or if it will be ported to the more popular Android mobile platform.

“Banging on about Britain’s relationship with the European Union is a sure-fire way to turn off voters. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom of many advisers in No 10. Three years ago, they may well have been right. But not any more. Following the Prime Minister’s rejection of a new EU treaty, polls show a surge in Conservative support. Seventy per cent of voters want a referendum on Europe. Half want to leave the EU altogether. Euroscepticism has gone mainstream.

“[I]t is no wonder Euroscepticism is on the rise. The question now is what that means for our relationship with the EU, and for the Government’s strategy. Ministers should, of course, govern in a way that is consistent with popular opinion, although it should never dictate the details of negotiations, or the tactics used. Yet the rising tide of Euroscepticism is an opportunity. It gives the Government permission to negotiate a new relationship that better serves our interests.

“This relationship must focus less on integration and more on competitiveness, trade and prosperity. We should be able to veto damaging EU proposals like the Tobin tax and sidestep laws detrimental to our interests. We must follow the principle that if the EU proposes a law and Parliament rejects it, that law must not apply here.

“We are seeing the emergence of a new European politics – one dominated by the triumvirate of Germany, France and the European Commission. Now is the time to think seriously about our future in Europe – to discuss where Britain fits in, and what role we should play. That should be for the British people to decide in a referendum, something that may not happen any time soon. But we do know this: on the issue of determining our relationship with Europe, last week’s veto was not the end, but only the beginning.”

As usual, there was no public statement from the man himself to that effect, however there is never a yellow ally too far away to do his dirty work for him.

As Guido Fawkes points out, Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott touted the “nuclear bomb” – this time after David Cameron’s veto of a treaty which allegedly placed British interests at risk – with The Observer saying “one of Vince Cable’s closest allies, Lord Oakeshott, has refused to rule out a possible resignation by the business secretary.”

It is so regular an occurance that it hardly warrants column inches any more – but, feeling betrayed by the party The Guardian threw it’s weight behind during last year’s election, the sisters have been perhaps one of the most violent to try to break up the coalition.

To back-track and take some perspective, an EU-wide treaty was never really likely to be in the British interests when it sought fiscal unity. The 27 economies within the EU are markedly different and a one size fits all solution to the eurozone crisis would see some member states’ financial position improve, whilst others would be put at risk.

The Times¹ hits the nail on the head when it compares the City of London to the key financial hub of France (Paris) – one of the key proponents of the new treaty alongside Germany.

The City of London generates a larger share of GDP than Paris (10% to 5.1%) and is a larger employer (1.6m to 1.2m) but, crucially, whilst Paris has a trade surplus of €36.4bn, the City of London has a negative trade surplus of -€0.2bn. Any new treaty enforcing stricter fiscal control and potential new taxes (for example the Tobin Tax) could cause lasting damage to the City and risk crippling the British economy still further.

It is not for ideological reasons David Cameron vetoed a treaty – but the real and substantial threat it posed to British interests!

Of course the Europhiles are not happy. The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg toed the government line about British interests, before declaring that it was not the outcome he had hoped for. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband called the Prime Minister weak for not negotiating the required safeguards into the new treaty.

The fact is something needs to be done to avoid disaster in the eurozone and the fact that it would be felt across all EU member states meant that a unilateral treaty needed to be agreed “at 27″. Such negotiations should then have seen relative safeguards for each member state to protect their economy.

Unfortunately, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (dubbed Merkozy by the media) claimed that David Cameron’s “modest” demands were “unreasonable” and refused. Cameron was left with no alternative but to wield his veto.

And, lo, the Business Secretary was not amused with the outcome. Once again, he threatened (by proxy) to resign – and, once again, he chickened out.

“Yellow to his core”, says Guido. In more ways than one…

Notes

1. C Bremner ‘Same story, two versions, divided by the Channel’ The Times (London, 12 December 2011) 10 – 11

Tory MP Mark Reckless says UK is now a fringe member of #EU, similar to Switzerland. “This is a hugely significant change” #r4today

Friday 9th December 2011 07:32 via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@BBCr4today

BBC Radio 4 Today

“The Prime Minister has been as good as his word.

“He said he would not agree to a new treaty unless he was able to safeguard the interests of the City. The other EU countries would not agree to safeguard the interests of the City and therefore David Cameron has said no.

“I think this is a very significant change. All of us will need time to see how the institutions of Europe are going to move forward.

“Nicolas Sarkozy was talking about a re-founding of the European Union. Now we see that is happening among between 23 and 26 countries and we are remaining outside that. That now gives us the opportunity to negotiate a new relationship with the European Union that is in our interests.

“We need to look to negotiate bilaterally, in the same way that Switzerland does, to protect our interests. That is the way this appears to be developing and I think we need to do that to secure our own independence and make our own decisions in our own interests.”

“On the question of a referendum, this is the first government in British history that has introduced a referendum guarantee. Under our new law, the British Government is simply not able to pass powers to Brussels without a referendum.

“While this week’s summit will inevitably focus on the crisis in the eurozone, I am still committed to forging a new kind of Europe. Indeed, some of the problems underlying the crisis strengthen the case for a more competitive, dynamic and outward-looking Europe.

“I have spoken about a Europe that has the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc. A Europe that looks beyond itself, with its eyes to the horizon, and recognises that it must change fundamentally or fall behind. A Europe that cherishes its national identities as a source of strength.

“That is the kind of Europe that is in Britain’s national interest and that is the kind of Europe I am determined to help to bring about.”

No, not the Davids Owen and Steel: that was a very long time ago!

Rather, as he had promised to do, Conservative Party Leader David Cameron has now been to the Haltemprice and Howden constituency to support David Davis and what might be called his pro-liberty campaign. This three-minute-long video provides just a flavour of how that went.