As Obama and Cameron played table
tennis yesterday, a considerably more furious game was being waged between the government and Tory backbenchers. It related to a Parliamentary motion tabled by Mark Reckless – and
described here – that sought to stem UK involvement in
any future bailouts for eurozone countries. All well and good, you’d think, until a rival amendment percolated down from on high to dilute Reckless’s proposals. This new amendment would only go so
far as to “urge the Government to raise the issue of the [bailout mechanism] at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the European Council”. The green benches were set for a
violent back-and-forth ‘tween one side and the other.
The outcome of all this was revealed yesterday evening. The dilutive amendment was approved overwhelmingly, by 267 votes to 46 – and most of them Conservative votes, too. Tim Montgomerie has a full list of the thirty Tory MPs who backed Reckless and voted against the amendment. It includes names such as Douglas Carswell, David Davis, Zac Goldsmith and John Redwood.
Although the result was, perhaps, predictable, the episode itself was instructive and worth dwelling on. Tory Eurospecticism is ever more cleaving in two http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13524601. On one side, the government and their supporters who are taking what they would describe as a “realistic” approach: standing up for the UK within the parameters they claim to have inherited. On the other, those who would see the government be more proactive and step outside the parameters altogether. With the markets convulsing at the thought of bail-outs for Spain and even Italy, this is a divide that is likely to solidify over coming weeks. I wonder whether the public’s attitude will harden with it.
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