McShame Waxes Lyrical

Europhiles often believe they are better people than us because they are so idealistic, whilst we criticise minute details of their grand master plan. For our part we cannot understand why their arguments never move beyond grand visions, or take into account the people that do not share their ideals. McShame, the former Europe minister is waxing lyrical about his vision of Europe in the Observer.

The next 18 months will see the destiny of Europe settled for a generation or more.

I assume he means if we vote yes. If we vote no, he and his friends will makes sure we have another chance to settle the destiny of Europe for a generation or more.

On 29 May, the French will vote in the most important referendum for Britain in half a century.

More important than ours?

Many express the banal view that Europe should simply be a free-trade area when the very birth of Europe was profoundly political, a response to the Second World War and the wars that preceded it.

That may be so, but all of our leaders have pretended otherwise. Its almost like we were long term platonic friends but have been told we are to be married, and that apparently was the plan all along.

The Europe I knew as a student at Oxford nearly four decades ago was one divided by communism, with three Mediterranean countries gripped by fascist regimes and a thousand and one petty immigration and customs jobsworths making movement of people, goods and ideas around Europe a pain, not a pleasure.

Now its just full of Health and Safety jobsworths. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed, but travel and living in other countries has become more common all over the world. I admit the EU has made some aspects of this easier, but did this have to come with the Working Hours Directive attached?

Never in history have so many Europeans moved from poverty to comfort, from dictatorship to freedom

Which we celebrate by creating a totally uncompetitive framework for business so that we can have more Europeans move from Comfort to Poverty than ever before. Funny how the same thing is happening the world over without the interference from failed European politicians.

Sadly, it was the Conservatives who were the European party between 1945 and 1990.

Very sadly for a party supposedly based on principals of individualism.

The transformation of the Conservatives into an anti-EU party is a reversion to a traditional Toryism of support for the Corn Laws, for imperial preference, and splendid isolationism.

The corn laws, in case you have forgotten were designed to protect British farmers from competition. They made food for the urban poor much more expensive but made rich landowners much better off. The nearest modern equivalent is the Common Agricultural Policy, forced upon us byt the EU that McShame loves so much.

The (Referendum) campaign will have to be cool, calm and full of a passionate rationalism to take on the isolationist arguments of those hostile to Europe.

We are not hostile to Europe, we are hostile to collectivism.

The treaty will have to be explained for what it is. It is not a constitution and it has been a major error to call it that.

Funny how we half agree on that one. It doesn’t include much that should be in a constitution, most worryingly, change can happen one way without amendments but not the other. On the other hand it contains much that would not normally be in a constitution. However it will bind us exactly like a constitution, so these points are merely academic. If the treaty is rejected by the France, our role is apparently very important.

Only Britain can heal the wounds of a Europe that will have seen five years' work voted down the drain.

The Soviet Unions collapse was 80 years work down the drain, only Putin worries about that. If you think that just because many people spent much time on something it must have value, you must lack a great deal of world experience.