With 6 months to the European elections, the Lib Dems are stepping up the party’s drive to be identified as the most pro-European party – in contrast to previous campaigns when the party has tended to downplay its pro-Europeanism.
There are two reasons. First, the Lib Dems believe we’re better off in. Secondly, the party’s private polling shows that those who aren’t current Lib Dem voters, but would consider voting for us, are generally pro-European and like the party’s stance.
Party president Tim Farron published an article on the Huffington Post yesterday making the Lib Dem case. Here’s an excerpt:
Of course, Liberal Democrats do not think the EU is perfect. However, rather than wasting countless hours debating abstract EU constitutional intricacies on dates and treaties like the Tories, we prefer action. Our MEPs in the European Parliament have helped to deliver a £30billion cut to the EU budget, the first ever cut in its history. We understand the importance of achieving a more efficient, accountable and competitive EU. More specifically, we must make it easier for British companies to export to the EU and beyond, reducing unnecessary red tape for small businesses. Europe needs reform, but European nations need each other to achieve this. Only the Liberal Democrats, as the “party of in”, are brave enough to make this argument and put British jobs and investment first.
You can read Tim’s article in full here.
* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Inside the secret world of Eel Pie Island
Phil Hutty re-selected for Torridge and Tavistock
Extraordinary cover-up of leak that could have cost lives
St Peter's Free Church Holiday Bible Club #dundeewestend
Brenda Will
Robert Heale
Tristan Ward
Linda Chung
Ruth Bright
9 Comments
We are always told that the EU is a lot more popular among the general public in other countries than it is in the UK, which raises the question of how it was possible to get the MEPs from other countries to vote for a budget cut in an election year. Aren’t they afraid they will lose votes if the cut the budget for a popular institution?
remember – it’s all the fault of murdoch/other-evil-right-wing-press. 😉
the concept of the false consciousness is alive and well.
Whether you support hte EUY
Whether you support the EU as a concept, and how much it should be allowed spend, are separate issues. It’s likely that MEP discussions on the budget were mostly on traditional ideological lines, with the centre-right supporting lower spending and efficiency, and the centre-left supporting higher spending.
Even the full article leaves out one very important point. It says that out of the EU 6% of businesses would disappear. To many people this is not a large figure and it does not counter the argument that we can find alternatives to this ‘small’ proportion by trade around the world.
Hence, in our case for IN we really must stress the advantages of being part of a huge economic block that can broker beneficial trade deals with others such as US , China and India, where any deals of our own would be difficult and even if successful, small in economic benefit.
“Whether you support the EU as a concept, and how much it should be allowed spend, are separate issues.”
So if I want to cut the budget of the NHS by 30 billion you wouldn’t say I don’t support the NHS as a concept? If what you mean though, is that probably most people in Europe like the idea that they can go anywhere in Europe and have legal equality with the locals and that they can buy and sell things with the rest of Europe, but they see it as just wasting money with no effect (I live in a net recipient country and the view here is just the same), then I agree with you. Those are our 1992 treaty rights. What else is popular from that last 20 years though? I actually think most people would support a policy of keeping what we’ve got but with no further integration.
The NHS and the EU are not the same thing. The NHS is a public service funded by government; the EU is a set governmental institution. What I am saying is simply that attitudes to EU spending is a matter of fiscal ideology in the same way as attitudes to national government spending . I am not making any value judgement of my own on this, nor ascribing any to the EU people as a whole. Most people understand that UK government taxation and spending policy is a matter of fiscal ideology, and nothing to do with being pro or anti UK. Indeed the staunchest “Queen & Country” people are often (not always) also the staunchest supporters of smaller government.. Why the commentariat don’t get this in reference to EU spending policy is beyond me. Instead everything about EU policy has to be automatically reduced to the question of whether you are pro or anti EU.
Alex McFie: “Indeed the staunchest “Queen & Country” people are often (not always) also the staunchest supporters of smaller government.”
This is true, which raises the question of someone who is sceptical about the institutionsif the EU or about particular policies such as the debt brake is always painted as an unthinking anti-European nationalist by people who are relatively supportive of the instutions.
Richard S: Actually I think it’s the other way round, with Eurosceptics assuming that anyone who is supportive of the principle of the EU is automatically an unthinking supporter of everything that the EU proposes. We see this in reports on EU proposals in some of the press, where they “report” on some flawed proposed EU regulation, and sneer, “The EU is going to do this; what do pro-Europeans have to say about that?” The implicit assumption is that if you support the EU, you have to support whatever EU institutions do. It is no wonder EU supporters sometimes get defensive when faced with this “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” questioning. Yet no-one suggests that someone who supports the existence of the UK is automatically an uncritical supporter of everything Whitehall and the government of the day does.
That’s why I would really like the Lib Dems to run a Euro election campaign based on the European *issues* that divided the parliamentary groups. This would show that actually, voters *can* influence EU policy through their votes for the European Parliament, and there are ideological differences between parties in their approach to the EU, separate from the in/out debate.