David Cameron, free to love Europe

Here is a conundrum. Tony Blair promised to be most pro-European prime minister since Edward Heath. He left Britain marginalised and distrusted in the European Union. (As a result of the Gulf War; the attempt to split Europe on Old and New Rumsfeldian lines; the Realpolitik lies about French policy on Iraq.)

David Cameron leads the most viscerally anti-Brussels, large, parliamentary party since Britain joined the EU. He could become the prime minister who reconciles the British people with Europe and gives Britain a consistently positive leadership role in Brussels for the first time.

He could, but that is not to say that he will.

The card game of British and European politics - evènements, mon cher garçon evènements - has dealt Cameron a rather interesting hand. A month ago many people foresaw that a Cameron Tory government would try to do as little as possible in Europe but that - harried by a fiercely Eurosceptic new parliamentary party - he would be pushed into a series of bruising disputes with EU partners.

Cameron now finds himself as leader of a coalition government with the very pro-European Lib Dems. His deputy PM, Nick Clegg, is a former European Commission official and Euro MP. Cameron's first foreign trip as Prime Minister was to Europe, where President Nicolas Sarkozy flattered him and Chancellor Angela Merkel called him "du" and "David" (but not yet "Dave"). Read full article in The Independent...

Economic crisis

How eurosceptics could save the euro

Formerly a star under the resolutely eurosceptic Margaret Thatcher, Conservative MP John Redwood, once labelled the “Pol Pot of Privatisation”, argues in the columns of The Times that Britain should help strengthen the single currency. Come again? “You should never allow a good crisis to go to waste,” is the answer, since “it could be an opportunity for Britain to seek the repatriation of powers in return for allowing the eurozone countries to enter a tighter union.” Redwood looks first at the case of sterling in the UK. “London and much of the South East is a strong, competitive economy but Liverpool or the Welsh valleys cannot devalue to make themselves more competitive. Instead, central government sends substantial transfer payments to the parts of the union that have higher unemployment and lower incomes to make the union tolerable. We all accept this as part of the price of belonging to the common currency area.”

Redwood points out that a successful euro is important for Britain, which is why Greece needs more discipline, but also “Germany has to accept more responsibility for financing other parts of the currency union.” The UK should therefore help eurozone members to create a framework for their budgetary stability. “We could ask for powers to be given back as our price for consenting to the creation of an economic government of Euroland.” Namely in the fields of social policy and employment.