Dave in Davos
Peter Hoskin 2:50pm
Reading Cameron's speech to the suits in Davos, one thing stands out: he's in no mood to stop ‘lecturing’ the eurozone, as Nicolas Sarkozy would put it. The whole thing is saturated with firm advice for our European brethren, from generalities such as ‘Tinkering here and there and hoping we’ll drift to a solution simply won’t cut it any more,’ to specific policies that the Continent should introduce so that it can ‘recover its dynamism’. He even found space to attack the ‘madness’ of a Tobin tax, as well as to hawk the coalition's deficit-reduction plan.
It's the sort of advice that could, of course, put Cameron further at odds with his fellow European leaders. He made sure to praise Angela Merkel today for ‘calling for a package of deregulation and liberalisation policies,’ but his overall emphasis on shortening Brussels' reach is actually in stark contrast to a lot of her recent proposals. In an interview that was published yesterday, Merkel urged the EU to ‘become incrementally closer and closer, in all policy areas,’ which would involve the European Commission functioning more like a government, and the European Court of Justice like a supreme court. The Guardian characterised it as her discovering ‘her inner European’.
But Cameron's speech today won't just have been aimed at Merkel et al, but also at voters in Britain. With his government attributing at least some of our economic woes to Europe's ongoing crisis, the PM will be keen to show that he's not just standing by and allowing it to happen. And then, of course, if the eurozone does explode, sending red hot shrapnel across the Channel, he'll hope to say that he tried, they failed.
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Publius
January 26th, 2012 3:25pm Report this comment"...he'll hope to say that he tried, they failed."
Yes indeed, Mr Hoskin. But he'll get the blame nevertheless, and rightly so. Because it is his duty to *act*, not merely to *talk*.
Prior to the election, he didn't sell himself to the electorate on the basis of hand-wringing impotence.
Fatbloke on tour
January 26th, 2012 3:26pm Report this commentPH
When does Dave the Rave become a national embarrassment?
It is beyond parody that an economic failure who has totally derailed the recovery handed to him by a previous government should now be lecturing the EU on what they have got wrong.
He needs to do his talking and his acting closer to home.
david
January 26th, 2012 3:35pm Report this commentHe of course tried and then failed. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, 'If you try and fail, its your fault for trying in the first place'
Fatbloke on tour
January 26th, 2012 4:01pm Report this commentPH
What has Dave the Rave said in the past regarding the Tobin Tax?
From memory he had warm words for it or something similar in the past.
Final nail in the "Compassionate Conservative" coffin?
Never believed a minute of it myself but it sure made the class warriors at the Grauniad and the BBC very moist.
starfish
January 26th, 2012 4:20pm Report this commentDoes anyone know what FBoT is going on about?
He seems to be having a private conversation
Fatbloke on to her
January 26th, 2012 4:21pm Report this commentMaggie Maggie Maggie - Out Out......
Publius
January 26th, 2012 4:24pm Report this commentStarfish writes on the subject of FBOT
"He seems to be having a private conversation"
Fat Bloke is an elitist, like all socialists. He doesn't care that what he would call "ordinary people" don't understand him. He is not writing for them. Hence the childish "in" names and private language.
Boudicca
January 26th, 2012 5:19pm Report this commentCameron asserted that we choose to be in the EU, we are not in by default. Liar.
How wrong can he be. We ARE in the EU by default because the Common Market we thought we were joining was morphed into the EU without our permission.
Only the Establishment want the UK in the EU the electorate would choose not to be if we were given the opportunity to vote (which of course we won't be).
Heartless Curmudgeon
January 26th, 2012 5:20pm Report this commentAs every word that the H2B utters is suspect until proven otherwise, it is as well that the vertically challenged French person is in attendance to force him to say the Right Thing for Britain.
"NO!" is the only word he need utter - over and over! Then leave.
RKing
January 26th, 2012 5:42pm Report this commentBrilliant speech and it needed saying.
Don't give a S**t if he broke protocols, conventions and niceties the nincompoops of France and Germany needed to be told and in plain ENGLISH......
More of it Dave those beggars have bled enough out of us already.
Our fisheries have gone, we are pestered with their petty rules, the agriculture con tricks and more, it all needs changing so DO IT!!
Think GB!!!
PS It always makes me smile when I think about the Germans, Italians etc telling US how to run our 'YUMAN RITES'.......
Cynic
January 26th, 2012 5:54pm Report this comment"Merkel urged the EU to ‘become incrementally closer and closer, in all policy areas,’ which would involve the European Commission functioning more like a government, and the European Court of Justice like a supreme court." Very good reasons why we should get out as soon as possible.
Halcyondaze
January 26th, 2012 6:06pm Report this comment"...he didn't sell himself to the electorate on the basis of hand-wringing impotence."
I love it! Do you think the "Conservatives" have any clue how utterly sick of him - and them - we're getting? Talk, talk, talk.
Read UKIP's literature: whatever spun nonsense Cameron and his goons (yes that's you too Speccie) are selling us here, the reality is that they are consistently voting away more and more power to Brussels. Dave does NOT want off the EU gravy train.
All we can hope is that this anti-democratic monstrosity continues to collapse while the principled and decent Tories here continue to give this PR man the hell he so richly deserves.
strapworld
January 27th, 2012 8:11am Report this commentWE chode to join the EU...the words of a man totally out of touch with the British people. The only thing we entered was the Common Market and Cameron would have taken absolutely no part in that particular referendum. The man proves, yet again, that he is no democrat.
Trapped
January 27th, 2012 8:21am Report this commentI have to wonder...
The tory base genuinely dislikes Cameron,
The labour base genuinely dislikes Milliband,
The libdem base genuinely dislikes Clegg.
Have we ever, as a nation, been in a position where we have universally loathed the people that are supposed to represent us?
Axstane
January 27th, 2012 10:21am Report this commentTrapped @8.21
The Tory base does not loathe Cameron. Most of those who write here are Kippers, BoOs or from the Mexican sept of the Klu Klux Klan.
Note that those of us who are actually within the Tory base - members and activists- do not spend part of every day attacking Farage since we see him as totally and deservedly powerless.
Dadad
January 27th, 2012 11:13am Report this commentWe're not going to be given the referendum we want, let alone the question worded as we want. We can only hope for salvation from external events, however painful they may be. I predict that if Germany and the ECB do not pull their fingers out, we shall have a 'euro spring'. Eventually the proles won't stand for it any more and violence on the streets will take over. Remember, you read it first here.
This is my second prediction; the first was made 10 years ago when I said that the euro would last for no more than 10 years before its contradictions would make it implode.
Halcyondaze
January 27th, 2012 11:48am Report this commentAxstane:
Smear and belittle us as much as you like - it merely reveals your contempt for us genuine conservatives for all to see.
This is of course exactly the same contempt we get from the "new" Conservative Party - full of left-leaning pro-EU metropolitan-bubble-dwelling careerists.
The reality is that your members are increasingly demoralised by the vacuous PR brigade in charge of the party and your voters nationwide are crying out for the return of a strong, patriotic leader with principle and real conservative values.
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