Politicians are misleading the people when they promise a final European settlement in anything less than 10 years. It took Britain 23 years, from the 1961 Cabinet decision to accede to the Treaty of Rome, to obtaining the Thatcher rebate in 1984, to get a working arrangement. And that was with 6 members in an ‘economic community’. There are now 27 in a ‘union’, each with veto powers.
The fact that David Cameron, on the back of a promise or threat of a referendum, could not drive change and reform in the EU should be an indicator of how sclerotic this process of extraction will be. It will take until 2030 at the soonest.
This is not a party political issue. If opposition politicians have a shred of personal integrity, they should accept this is a technocratic issue based on how the EU works, or rather how it does not work. They should be honest with the public instead of scoring points off the Government. If they use this as the basis of an attack, they are a disgrace.
Country not party, as Liz Kendall stated in the 2015 Labour leadership contest, comes first.
(Image: Garry Knight)
