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Politics

Here’s a Tory split on Europe you won’t have heard about

Fraser Nelson

Wednesday, 14th November 2007

Mr Grieve, a practising barrister, has supported the European human rights agenda since he praised it in his maiden parliamentary speech ten years ago. He has set up his own policy review board, which is expected to conclude that Tory policy should not threaten the legal supremacy of Strasbourg. If it reports early enough, Mr Cameron may well be bound by its decision. Yet Mr Grieve is opposed by a growing coalition of Tory MPs, who are only emboldened by the prospect of his resignation.

There is also a generational axis at play. The 2005 intake of Conservative MPs is strikingly Eurosceptic and unashamedly Thatcherite — a trend which looks set to be reinforced in coming years, according to a fascinating survey of Tory candidates by the Conservativehome website. These are people who have pictures of Baroness Thatcher on their wall, often with her mocked up as a revolutionary in the style of Jim Fitzpatrick’s 1968 Che Guevara poster.

By and large, they regard as hopelessly anachronistic the idea that Europe somehow represents Britain’s economic future, and believe the EU represents menace rather than opportunity. They consider low regulation to be the best route to success in a globalised society. And they propose to limit government authority in Whitehall, as well as in Brussels.

The policy on elected police chiefs is a case in point. If policing is truly made a local issue, as it is in the United States, we would be left with the question of what a Conservative home secretary would do. Older hands fear that this would leave the government emasculated if there were a national law-and-order issue to resolve. ‘But these are the people nostalgic for their old red boxes,’ one of the new Tory MPs says. ‘They think government will be better if it’s run by a man with a blue rosette. They don’t realise that state control is itself the problem.’

Neither side is quite clear where David Cameron stands. For all his youth, it is he who has retained Mr Letwin, and he who has shown no appetite for confrontation on Europe. Many suspect he agreed an informal détente with Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, when they met in Berlin last month, and that he is much less radical on EU policy than his shadow foreign secretary, William Hague. The Tory leader backs police reform, yet his health policy is to guarantee the unions an end to NHS reform. He promises radical Wisconsin-style welfare reform, but has as yet to announce the details.

So the tension within the Tory party runs far deeper than the spat about a future EU referendum. It is visible throughout the policy debate. The party is poised between caution and radicalism, confronting the EU or accepting it, between the idealism of the Notting Hill set or the more practical approach of the Blueberry Hill generation. It is, remarkably for the Tories, a quiet battle. But it is made all the more ferocious by the belief of those involved that, as policy is finalised in the next few weeks, the future of the party is at stake.

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Kirsty, Merseyside

November 14th, 2007 8:49pm

Would anyone really care if Dominic Grieve resigned, it would be no great loss to the shadow cabinet in my opinion. On the issue of the human rights agenda it seems to be increasingly obvious that it is not europe (as we have previously been led to believe)that is causing all these problems regarding deportations and bizarre rulings, that seem to go against national interest and common sense, but the judiciary in this country and their peverse interpretation of EU law. This seems to be becoming increasingly obvious as we see Italy doing something that would be absolutley impossibe in Britain because of the judges. I agree with the Tory policy of elected police chiefs but I think they should go a step further and have an elected judiciary as well, this would be far more radical.

Everyone Muddles 'Em Up

November 15th, 2007 8:03am

Those European Courts explained: European Court Of Human Rights: based in Strasbourg; nothing to do with the EU, it is a body of the unrelated Council Of Europe. European Court Of Justice: based in Luxembourg; the supreme court of all EU members; it serves to enforce EU law (not including the 'Human Rights Act', which is a construct of the Council Of Europe - see above) such as that covering the free movement of peoples in the EU27, which Italy is currently ignoring. International Court Of Justice: based in The Hague; a UN body.

tim duckworth

November 15th, 2007 1:23pm

Any shadow Minister - a person by definition being currently without responsibility - who threatens to resign should be displaced immediately. We do not have time for people who wish to throw their teddy out of the pram. Either achieve acceptance of ideas or leave. Threats are always the mark of the weak in such situations.

John Bull

November 15th, 2007 1:57pm

Oliver Letwin & Dominic Grieve are doing us all a favour by exposing the barely concealed irrational thinking still dominating the "Conservatives". Cameron needs to decide whether he is prepared to prove he can be trusted ( not at all likely ) or get back into bed with his green labourites. If the Cameron machine cannot yet detect the crass failings of their blowing-in-the-wind policies by now, then it's high time they were all sacked and the money spent on Oxfam. What happened to the "real" 1922 Committee ?

John Corfield

November 16th, 2007 6:02pm

Love your articles,you are such a pellucid writer but when you appear on TV what language do you speak in ? I cannot understand a word you say, are you a Balt or a Slav?

Janice Small

November 17th, 2007 11:14am

Nick Herbert is absolutely right and will have the backing of the majority of the grass roots membership and I believe the majority of the public. I have been holding Pro Referendum Action Days across the south east. Around 70% of the public who signed our petitions want a referendum on In or Out, not just on the Reform Treaty. The majority of our 2005 intake are believers in direct democracy or localism as it is often known as. Cameron is adopting many of their proposals and is known as the most EU sceptic leader we have had. I don't understand the argument that Grieve puts forward. What is wrong with re-negotiating our position? Were we not against Labour signing away our judicial rights in 1997? We should listen to the people.

Keith McBurney

November 18th, 2007 12:13pm

The key is recognising that it is the people - individually and severally - who are sovereign and not parliaments where our sovereignty should be upheld and returned undeminished from the Union and EU. The state we are in is because of the State we are in - an unrepresentative dictatorship of, by and for parties not people. Along with declining membership, no party polled more than 20% of the total electorate at the last General Election in 2005. Does no to a General Election, no to the EU Constitution Treaty Referendum and no to completing PR nationally and locally sound like listening, let alone the scant real progress on long overdue constitutional reform. Party power or people power? Top down or bottom up? Toppling over or standing firm? What would get your vote?

W thompson

November 19th, 2007 4:45pm

Oportunistic and shallow, it seems to me,sums up the current tory leadership.Europe is a huge unpalatable issue that continues to haunt the present and and any future leadership contenders. The Diversionary tactics currently being pursued by the current leadership will count for nought in a future general election.

John Farthing

November 20th, 2007 5:36am

I agree with the previous comment. The central issue is the EU, always has been and always will be while it erodes our ability to control our politics and politicians, and it won't go away. We need to resecure our borders and get back the primacy of our law courts as a first step. This has to go back to ECA 1972 and wholesale modification of our terms of engagement, or whether we need to be engaged at all. If the Tories have finally realised that that's a vote winner then it's time to hang out the flags and bin the UKIP dalliance - but this must be real and very plain for all to see. It's been a long time coming and if they don't do something soon I predict violence on the streets as protest goes underground. They have got to tap into that huge feeling of discontent out there and reconnect with an electorate sick to the back teeth of government by political elites who have no common sense or historical perspective. Yes old stuff, but it is central to building a new centre-right concensus. and I agree with doing things Green - but this has to come first.

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