Archive for the ‘Chairman »s blog’ Category
mardi, juin 24th, 2014
A French message to Britain: get out of Europe before you wreck it!
This article by French Socialist and former Prime Minister Michel Rocard was published in Le Monde on 5th June, 2014 and then on-line in English in The Guardian (www.the guardian.com) on 6th June, 2014.
« The European Union is on its knees but you, the British, want to block even small steps to democratic legitimacy. »
« Now you pretend to want to exit; the majority of your people are in no doubt about it. But you have a banking interest in remaining to capitalise on the disorder that you have helped to create.
So go before you wreck everything.
There was a time when being British was synonymous with elegance. Let us rebuild Europe. Regain your elegance and you will regain our esteem. »
Posted in Britain in Europe, British EU Veto, Cameron & Eurozone, Cameron & Old Tories, Federal EU?, France's Political Earthquake, French Message to Britain, Referendum on EU Membership | No Comments »
lundi, juin 2nd, 2014
Benedict Brogan writing today (click on the link below) in his political blog (The Telegraph on-line, 2nd June, 2014) thinks interventions by Tony Blair and Angela Merkel leave PM David Cameron in a perilous position on Europe.
According to Mr Brogan
« Downing Street has denied German claims that David Cameron said Britain would leave the EU if Jean-Claude Juncker is chosen as president, but that hasn’t stopped them being widely reported. »
« Accompanying the headlines is a sense that Mr Cameron has gone public too early on Britain’s opposition to the Luxembourg federalist. »
[particularly as it is also reported today that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already working to gather support for the candidacy of Mr Junker.]
In addition, Tony Blair has entered the debate with a speech to the CBI this morning in which he will try to put himself as the head of the « Save Europe » movement. According to Mr Blair:
« It has to be a debate elevated to a Europe-wide level, with Britain playing a leading role, not just a negotiation of Britain’s terms of membership. It has to be about what is good for Europe as well as what is good for Britain. »
Benedict Brogan thinks that all this makes the Prime Minister
« vulnerable to the charge that his position on Europe is not a big strategic argument based on principles, but a series of carefully judged tactical gambits designed to keep one step ahead of Nigel Farage [of UKIP] and numbers of his backbenchers. »
Mr Cameron has chosen to make his stand against Mr Junker, and perhaps has been misquoted in suggesting this as a break point for future UK membership of the EU, but will need the support of Germany to succeed. Without the support of Mrs Merkel he seems to have put himself into a perilous position.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100274299/blair-and-merkel-leave-cameron-in-a-perilous-position/
Tags:Conservative Party, EU Referendum, Eurosceptics, UKIP
Posted in Referendum on EU Membership, Tories & Europe, Welcome, What about UKIP | No Comments »
samedi, mai 10th, 2014
At last a positive and emotional view of the Union with Scotland by historian Simon Schama, writing in The Financial Times of 9th May, 2014.
« A splendid mess of a union should not be torn asunder.
Scotland?s exit from Britain?s multicultural unity would be a disaster. »
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/085b4586-d5fc-11e3-a239-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz31IfNXNr8
Tags:Scottish Independence, SNP, UKIP
Posted in Menzies Campbell: No to Independence, Mess of Union!, Scottish Independence, Scottish Referendum, Welcome | No Comments »
mercredi, avril 30th, 2014
Here’s a challenging article on UKIP leader Nigel Farage from Alex Massie writing in The Spectator blog:
« Nigel Farage is a phoney. There is a simple solution to everything that ails the United Kingdom: leave the European Union and, to all intents and purposes, close our borders. Then we shall enjoy a new Golden Age.
It is an illusion wrapped in a lie inside a fraud. No such solution presents itself. In the unlikely event Mr Farage got his way almost every problem this country faces would remain intact ? and remain as impervious to simple solution. »
« Instead of smearing themselves with tar and feathers, mainstream politicians should remind populists that they do the hard work of politics: representing constituents, reconciling competing claims and taking an interest in dry corners of legislation that affect people?s lives. Most politics is necessary drudgery. Seen from this angle, the ?elite? are the people who get their hands dirty. And populists who damn the whole spectacle from cosy sidelines are the truly decadent ones. »
Tags:Eurosceptics, Nigel Farage, Russell Brand, UKIP
Posted in Farage to Join Conservatives?, Nigel Farage is just Russell Brand, Welcome, What about UKIP, What to do about UKIP? | No Comments »
dimanche, avril 20th, 2014
According to David Aaronovitch writing in The Times, (Nigel) Farage of UKIP is shorthand for those in the UK, including around a third of Tories, who want separation from the EU; (Alex) Salmond of the SNP is a figurehead for those in Scotland who want separation from the UK. The writer finds it increasingly hard not to see the similarities in their arguments:
– The UK (Scotland) has been diminished by its association with, or absorption into, a larger grouping represented by « Brussels » (« Westminster ») that rule and rule badly.
– The people of the UK (Scotland) did not vote for Jose Manuel Barroso (David Cameron).
– UKIP praises Switzerland as a model non-EU country while the SNP/Scottish manifesto mentioned Norway 57 times and that « small, independent nations of comparable size to Scotland are the world’s happiest. »
– Both camps share a common language of complacent and ill-founded reassurance: It will be alright. They’re just bluffing. Britain (Scotland) is too important to the EU (UK) for them not to allow us to separate on our terms.
Reference: Farage and Salmond want you to live in Outopia, David Aaronovitch, The Times, Thursday April 17, 2014
Tags:Conservative Party, Eurosceptics, Scottish Independence, SNP, UKIP
Posted in Farage to Join Conservatives?, Menzies Campbell: No to Independence, Scottish Independence, Scottish Referendum, Similar Arguments: UKIP & SNP, What about UKIP, What to do about UKIP? | No Comments »
mardi, avril 8th, 2014
Writing in The Guardian below on Monday 7th April, 2014 former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell thinks that:
« Those who argue against independence have a duty to recognise that most Scots want their parliament to have more powers. »
« ……..the majority of Scots still prefer a solution that allows Scotland to remain in the UK but for its parliament to have greater powers, most particularly economic. The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats publicly acknowledge this reality. They differ in nuance and detail, but not in principle. »
« The promises of the SNP are incapable of achievement, but it chooses to challenge the good faith of the three parties in their undertakings to embrace that principle. Its challenge would be effectively blunted if the three parties could agree on the process of implementation of that principle. »
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/independence-scotland-scots-powers-parliament-menzies-campbell?CMP=twt_gu
Tags:British politics, Scottish Independence
Posted in Menzies Campbell: No to Independence, Scottish Independence, Scottish Referendum, Welcome | No Comments »
vendredi, mars 21st, 2014
Lord Ashcroft thinks (see link to his article below) that the Conservative party should not be misled by Labour leader Ed. Milliband’s recent non-pledge on an EU referendum, when his polling has found that:
« Tory voters are twice as likely as Labour voters, and UKIP voters three times as likely, to say that defending Britain?s interests in Europe is one of the most important issues facing the country. »
« By putting the referendum pledge at the front and centre of its 2015 campaign the Conservative Party would not only be missing the chance to talk about the things most voters care about more, like the economy, jobs and public services. It would also, as far as these voters are concerned, be proving again the out-of-touchness (outness of touch?) of which it has for so long been accused. That is the trap Ed Miliband has set for the Tories. Surely they won?t be so daft as to fall into it? »
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2014/03/milibands-referendum-non-pledge-will-win-votes-labour-conservatives-let/#more-2686
Tags:2015 Election, Conservative Party, EU Referendum
Posted in Merkel EU Lobby for UK, Merkel in London, Millibands Non-Referendum Pledge, Referendum on EU Membership, The Wrong Battle, To Be or Not in EU, Tories & Europe, Welcome | No Comments »
lundi, mars 17th, 2014
This challenging article by Thomas Fillis of European Public Affairs concludes, following the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to London, that the gap between what Tory backbenchers are demanding, and what David Cameron can deliver in Europe is still unbridgeable.
http://www.europeanpublicaffairs.eu/merkel-in-london-a-lesson-in-eurorealism/#comments
« Merkel?s visit has reminded us that Eurorealism is how to engage with Brussels. »
That is, the only way to change the European Union is from within.
What do the members and friends of British Conservatives in Paris think?
Tags:Conservative Party, EU Referendum, Eurosceptics
Posted in Merkel EU Lobby for UK, Merkel in London, Referendum on EU Membership, The Wrong Battle, To Be or Not in EU, Welcome | No Comments »
vendredi, mars 14th, 2014
Here is an important message for all British citizens resident abroad and not impacted by the 15-year-limit on their voting rights, from Greg Clark, Minister of State for Cities and the Constitution:
Register as an overseas voter!
This is important for both the European elections in 2014 (if you have not already registered where you are resident) and the next general election in 2015.
Tags:2015 Election, British Overseas voters, Conservative Party, European Elections, Voting registration
Posted in Register to Vote!, Registering to Vote, Voting rights, Welcome, Winning in 2015 | No Comments »
lundi, février 24th, 2014
Have a browse of the interactive BBC News link below.
It lists the marginal seats which could decide the next UK General Election in May 2015.
« government majorities are made or broken in the relatively small number of marginal seats with small majorities that change hands at elections ».
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25726270
Tags:2015 Election, Ajouter un mot-clef, Conservative Party, Marginal Constituencies
Posted in Boris Backs Living Wage, Cameron's EU Negotiation, Economic Policy for Many, Marginal Constituencies, Welcome, Winning in 2015 | No Comments »