As the European Union attempts to stem the tide of financial insecurity, Reply takes a look at the growing tension for UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and the political row that has Britain on edge.
The Prime Minister's questioned. Photo: consilium.europa.eu
The worst kept secret in the international community is the friendly façade the United Kingdom maintains with the continent and the distain the rest of Europe has for the UK. The façade began to crack after a heavily publicized row between French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
“You lost a good opportunity to shut up,” said Mr. Sarkozy. “We’re sick of you criticizing us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings,” commenting on the UK’s decision to opt of the euro in 1999 and also their negotiations to remove themselves from the EU-bail-outs and to take no further role in the Greek aid package outside of their obligations as a member of the IMF.
So, it comes as no surprise that the fiscal events in Europe over the summer have once again riled the traditionalists in the House of Commons. Earlier this spring everybody’s favourite Tory MP from Bury North, David Nuttall, presented Downing Street with a petition signed by 100,000 Britons calling for the first EU referendum since 1975.
“It’s 36 years since we last had a referendum on the European Union and it wasn’t the European Union in those days. It was the European Economic Community. Since then it has changed out of all recognition in terms of its size its scope and its power,” Nutall told to EUobserver.com.
Mr. Cameron has managed to keep the Tory party’s tortured relationship with the EU at bay while the Commons continues to debate domestic issues that have beleaguered the island kingdom all summer. During his speech at the Conservative Conference, Cameron repeated his party’s manifesto that now is not the time to leave the EU, but Her Majesty’s Government will work to “repatriate” some powers back to the UK sometime in the future, all while opposing any future interference from Brussels. This however did not satisfy the Eurosceptic conservatives who led a rancorous debate on the floor late last month ending with 81 members of Mr. Cameron’s Tories defying his imposed three-line whip (the strongest possible order to back the Government) to vote against any referendum on EU membership.
Having almost lost half his backbench, Mr. Cameron should tread carefully. To deny that the backbench revolt was anything less than the beginnings of a quiet revolution would be naive. He would do well to remember that this came dreadfully close to the Treaty of Maastricht vote in 1993, in which the Government suffered a stunning defeat and the eventual vote of no confidence against John Major. Mr. Cameron should stop playing “kick the can” with European question until the Government is ready to face the referendum head-on, lest he find himself in the same boat as Margaret Thatcher and John Major. — JK
