Over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey has a rather perceptive and interesting piece on the Conservative Party’s implosion over Europe.
Here’s Ed’s take:
The Conservative Party hasn’t won a general election for over two decades and its latest infighting on Europe suggests that this trick may get repeated. Internal divisions on Europe haven’t been the sole cause of the Tories’ poor record. A big reason has been the growth of multiparty politics: Liberal Democrats in government in Westminster; the Scottish National Party in power in Holyrood. And with Ukip moving from a single issue party to a party of right-wing protest, Britain’s multi-party politics looks even more daunting for the Conservatives. How they respond to the strongest UKIP threat ever may well determine the next election. Do they appease Ukip or confront them?
So far, Conservative appeasers are winning. Talk of pacts with Ukip and even more hostility to Europe and migrants is leaving the Prime Minister’s modernisation strategy rather ragged. Yet that strategy was informed by analysis showing that for every vote they gained on the right, they lost one on the centre. The votes they will gain by aping Ukip will almost certainly be in the wrong places, pushing an overall majority further way. For Liberal Democrats, a Conservative rightward shift replacing their past strategy of “love–bombing” seems like a return to business as usual. It also underlines how we, in this coalition, are preventing the right taking control of the government tiller.
What the Conservatives haven’t understood is that Ukip’s new trick has not been to talk more about Europe, but to talk less about Europe. Its recent focus is on immigration and crime. With the economy and jobs top in voters’ minds – and Europe low – the Tories are repeating their 2001 and 2005 mistakes.
And Ed tells us a little about his experiences of reforming the EU constructively from within:
Is there another way? My experience in government suggests there is. Britain’s interests can be served by reforming the EU from within. As a business minister, I became frustrated with the slow pace of economic reform in the EU – despite conclusions from European Councils saying the right things. So I set up a new ginger group, working with fellow EU Ministers who share the British view that the EU needs to boost competitiveness.
This informal like-minded group – the EU Group for Growth – quickly attracted 16 member states. We went on, among other things, to secure the most significant shift in EU regulatory approach for decades: default small-business exemptions from all new EU regulations; a review of the most burdensome regulations for business; and the ability to drop pipeline proposals that could pose excessive costs. You won’t have read about it, but it’s the beginnings of real EU reform.
You can read Ed’s full piece here.
* Nick Thornsby is a day editor at Lib Dem Voice.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Lord Bonkers: "Something less terrible than the truth"
Two new Makerfield by-election polls gives Burnham 5 and 12 point leads
Reform under water
Tom Reeve
paul barker
Neil Hickman
Tom Bailey
expats
14 Comments
I’m really pleased to hear about the EU group for growth, and it shows that the UK is with the majority not the minority in Europe on this. This might even be one area in which the ‘renegotiation strategy’ could work, though personally I doubt it would work as well as positive engagement.
It does worry me that there are two big political threats to economic confidence – one that we might leave the EU, and the other that Labour may be fairly hard left and may still win a general election. (I remember when Tony Blair took over the Labour party and rejected the hard left, there was a boost to economic confidence immediately because the threat of a hard left government had substantially receded. This fact does give Labour in opposition a certain amount of power.)
It is frustrating that these political threats to confidence exist when the purely economic challenges are serious enough.
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1138442/thumbs/o-LIB-DEM-EUROPE-570.jpg?6
Remember this?
The Tories are less business friendly than they have been for 30 years. What kind of muppetry is promising a vote in 4 years. Given that Cameron cant even negotiate with his own MPs, does anyone think that he will negotiate anything of consequence with the EU. It beggars belief that Cameron is the best leadership material that the Tories can muster.
How can you damage something which is already non-existent?
this article doesn’t really explain how the national interest is being damaged…………….
“You won’t have read about it” says Ed about the Group for Growth. Well we – and millions of others – should have done, should now do, should be aware of the sensible possibilities.
Jedi, would you make a large capital investment in the UK if you judged there was a significant risk that the UK would leave the EU in 4 years time. 4 years is a long time to deliberately foster a sense of economic uncertainty. The Tories are 90 percent of the way to being a wholly owned subsidiary of the City and to hell with the rest of our economic well being.
Eurosceptic Tories have given up caring about the next election. I honestly believe they lack the mental maturity to think that far ahead. I’ve never seen anything like it in politics since the bad old days of the 1980’s left. And I’m a Conservative party member.
It is rather striking that after only three years in government the Tory party is already recreating with uncanny accuracy its disaster of the late 1990s (the chief difference being that Cameron seems to have less backbone than Major).
It reminds me of the episode of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ where people are doomed to re-enact a murder in the 1950s over and over again …
It is rather striking that after only three years in government the Tory party is already recreating with uncanny accuracy its disaster of the late 1990s (the chief difference being that Cameron seems to have less backbone than Major).
It reminds me of the episode of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ where people are doomed to re-enact a murder in the 1950s over and over again …
Surely, the interests of the UK economy and the chances of an overall Tory electoral victory are opposing forces?
”Jedi, would you make a large capital investment in the UK if you judged there was a significant risk that the UK would leave the EU in 4 years time.”
Alistair, inrernational investors are not planks, they understand that our relationship with the eu, regardless of whether it has been articulated or not.
given that the question exists, i imagine that they are very much encouraged that we are facing the problem at last, after all a little judicious surgery now may well obviate the need for an amputation later.
we are not having a referendum because some toxic little englander shire tories banged their fists, no, it is because there is an ovrrwhelming electoral interest in having one.
you cannot wish away euroskeptic voters, or pretend they are few enough that you don’t need to consider their votes.
Jedi, Cameron is not acting in a rational manner. The best explanation is that by giving so many junior Government positions to Lib Dems Cameron has less carrots to dangle amongst the up and coming members of his party. Noone who wants to win a game of poker advertises most of their hand 4 years in advance. Cameron has backed himself into a corner. Yes UKIP got a decent share of the vote. But this policy simply feeds the UKIP troll.
“you cannot wish away euroskeptic voters”
Your spelling gives away more than you imagine.
“or pretend they are few enough that you don’t need to consider their votes.”
The Liberal Democrats can do very well, thank you, simply by defending the UK’s position in the European Union; there are very many voters who are strongly in favour of the European institutions. The Liberal Democrats would lose many more voters by pursuing Europhobes than they could ever hope to gain. However, it isn’t even about the votes: it’s a principle.