The reason why rubber-spined David Lidington (Bercow’s Berkshire neighbour, as it happens) has been dodging the question of Lisbon renegotiation all day today is that the Cleggeron line is now much less Eurosceptic. Lidington is a pragmatist who will do what it takes to keep Britain in the game in Europe – and Nick Clegg demanded a softer line on Europe as part of the ToryDem deal. (As Slick Nick has an EU pension dependent on him being nice about the most corrupt and spendthrift ‘democracy’ in the world, this was always on the cards).
Where this leaves Willy Hague is anyone’s guess – although his focus on Washington immediately after becoming Foreign Secretary might be explained in that context as a man looking for ticker-tape parades in favour of grassy knolls. He is only human after all, even if he does look like the alien in one of those 1970s US sitcoms. But for the Hagues and Osbornes, the Europhile views of the Cables and Cleggs are made all the more worrying by the Camerons and Lidingtons being prepared to bend over forwards as much as backwards. They and the Tory Right wing fear they are being royally shafted.
There is already much gloating about Britain’s dilemma in Paris and Berlin. This morning’s Le Monde leader noted that
‘…the Tories’ manifesto pledge to repatriate powers from Brussels is now off the table…It’s one of the concessions that Nick Clegg – a fervent European who worked for Commissioner Leon Brittan before being elected to the EP in 1999 – has obtained from his coalition partner. It’s not the only one, though. Mark Francois, former shadow Europe minister, has also been sacrificed on the altar of the new coalition. This proclaimed Eurosceptic has given way to David Lidington, a pragmatic politician who will take care of tempering the anti-Brussels ardour of the new Foreign Secretary William Hague…’
But for the French at the moment, there is an old enemy to the north. Finance Minister and dyslexic mathematician Christine Lagarde was hopping mad about Geli Merkel’s unilteral declaration that she will not wear shorts any more, but the Germans will persist not desist in their line. Again this morning, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said:
“When we introduced the euro in the 1990s [I don’t think so, Wolfie] Germany wanted a political union and France did not. That is why we have an economic union without a political union.”
So yah-boo sucks Johnny Frog, it’s all your fault. See earlier Slogs about squabbling recrimination, but also see more of today’s European newspapers. As we can now expect to hear calls from Germany for changes to the Lisbon Treaty, giving Brussels powers to co-ordinate national budgets, Le Monde reports that such proposals are creating concerns within the French Parliament. The UMP group chief Jean-François Copé has said he’s “hostile” to the idea. EurActiv France quotes the President of French Senate Gérard Lacher saying that the proposals are “constitutionally inapplicable”.
Or put another way, get your tanks off my lawn, Fritz.
The Slog suggested forcibly earlier this week that there has never been a better time for the UK to get seriously truculent about financial transaction taxes and stitch-ups whereby the former Franco-German alliance would nick much of the City’s dominance in the European theatre of finance. If we sacrifice this chance for the sake of Coalition cuddliness, it may be a good call – in that after another year or two, there may be no EU at all.
That’s a possibility, but one which to my mind looks less likely with every week. I could be wrong, but adversity may well produce a backs-to-the-wall attitude in Brussels….even if Peter Mandelson isn’t there any more.
In that greater likelihood, we need to have cards in hand against a newly resurgent German-dominated EU – and we need to play some of them right now. The blokes with the correct commercial perspective on all this are Hague and Osborne. England expects, etc etc etc.
The Slog 