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Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle): Is not the reference to 1688 particularly apt, given that it is the date on which parliamentary democracy began in this country and the Convention will take it away?
Mr. Straw: I sometimes think that the hon. Gentleman was there in 1688. However, the hon. Member for Stone went even further back than 1688 to 1649, as if somehow or other—
Mr. Straw: I am answering. Evidently, the hon. Member for Stone has not read this constitutional text—[Interruption.] I have read what happened in 1688. I have read the lot. Of course what happened then helped the introduction of parliamentary democracy, but it is typical of the hon. Gentleman that he thinks history stopped in 1688. He has forgotten that it was followed by a century of the most corrupt sort of elitist Government, which required action and agitation by the labouring classes before the universal right to vote was achieved and we secured the sort of Parliament that we have today.
Those comments disclose an all-too-familiar mindset. The Conservatives fought the last election—[Interruption.] I am sorry, but I must make progress. They fought the last election on an anti-European platform, and lost for a second time by a record margin. Today's Conservative leader has none of the subtlety or forensic skills of the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague). Furthermore, the opposition of the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith) is visceral, as is that of his supporters. The drift of the Opposition is towards an
unattainable renegotiation of the basis of the UK's membership, leading inevitably to this country's total separation from the Union. However, to sugar this bitter pill, which even the Opposition know would immediately be rejected by the British people, they have invented a fantasy comfort zone—
- "an associate EU membership of some kind",
Sir Patrick Cormack: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for the Foreign Secretary to confuse a eunuch with a harlot?
Mr. Deputy Speaker: I think that the Chair should keep out of that matter.
Mr. Straw: There is no confusion at all. Baldwin was talking about power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot down the ages; and I am talking about responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch down the ages. The Conservative party should think carefully about what it is proposing and reflect on where an associate membership of the EU would lead them. It would indeed lead them to responsibility without power and we would be bound to accept every last detail of what the EU imposed on us without any proper influence over it. That would be a humiliation for this nation, and the approach itself is born of a fundamental failure of the Conservative party's belief and confidence in itself and in this nation. Under its leadership we would always be the victims of some evil forces of darkness from the continent. We would never be able to win the argument and make the alliances that both Edward Heath—and, yes, Margaret Thatcher—managed, and which we have successfully strengthened and sustained in the national interest.
Ours is the patriotic case for Britain's membership of the European Union. I am confident that the final treaty that emerges from the IGC will be a good deal for Britain. But for an Opposition who are instinctively committed to undermining the European Union, the treaty will probably be a disappointment, because it should result in a strong Europe with efficient institutions, which better attract the support of Europe's citizens. It should deliver a more democratic Europe, anchored in the legitimacy of the nation state. I commend the motion to the House.
3.15 pm
Mr. Michael Ancram (Devizes): I beg to move amendment (b), in line 1, leave out from 'House' to end and add 'notes the draft Constitutional Treaty produced by the Convention on the Future of Europe; and believes that no constitutional European Treaty agreed by the Intergovernmental Conference should be ratified without a referendum.'.,
standing in my name, the name of the Leader of the Opposition and the names of my right hon. Friends.
I start by joining the Foreign Secretary in congratulating and thanking hon. Members of the House and members of the European Parliament who served on the Convention. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their work. This is the fourth of several debates on the European issue and I have to say that, of all of them, this must be the most surreal. I always rather respected the Foreign Secretary for the calm way in which he usually deals with debates of this sort, but having just listened to his rant, I can think only that it is a sign of insecurity and that he should perhaps take a little medical advice for his condition. We know that he has been under a lot of strain recently so perhaps we should forgive him.
I shall explain why the debate is surreal. Governments normally ask for the support of the House on proposals that are important significant and beneficial—but not on this issue. On the proposed European constitution the Government are at pains to tell us how unimportant it all is, how insignificant its impact will be and how wrong we all are to get worried. While the rest of integrationist Europe talks up the proposed constitution, the Government Front Benchers talk it down. While the rest of supranationalist Europe glows with pride at the overall impact of the proposals, our Government pretend that nothing much has changed.
When Joschka Fischer of Germany boasts:
- "We have a draft constitution that is worthy of the word 'historic'",
- "the most important text since the Treaty of Rome in 1957",
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton): Has my right hon. Friend noticed that the word "constitution" does not feature at all in the rather long motion before the House today?
Mr. Ancram: I had noticed that, but I also noticed that the document is a draft treaty to establish a constitution, so the word is in the document, but apparently not in the mouth of the Foreign Secretary.
The Government's clear ploy is to set up a false debate, suggesting that all those who do not support their moves towards a more integrated and politically united Europe want to get out. The Minister for Europe was at it again in the "Thunderer" column in today's The Times. More a splutter than a thunder, as far as I was concerned! However, it is simply not true and Government Members know that it is not true. We are in the European Union. We do not want to leave it. That is not the debate. The debate is about what sort of European Union we believe is best suited to the challenges that lie ahead. That is the debate that the Government are so desperate to avoid.
Lembit Öpik : On that point, the right hon. Gentleman tells us that his party is opposed to our country leaving the EU, so why have members of his party gone to Estonia and sought to talk the Estonians out of the benefits and privileges of the very membership that he assures us is important to the UK?
Mr. Ancram: The Foreign Secretary kindly and helpfully quoted from Mr. Daniel Hannan, who made it clear that he hoped that the Whips were not looking when he made his comments, because he knows that that is not the policy of the Conservative party. He has always had a strong view, which he is pursuing with others. Having spent the past few days watching one Labour Back Bencher after another going into the opposite Lobby from their Front Benchers, I shall take no lessons about how to deal with disagreement from that party.
Mr. Patrick McLoughlin (West Derbyshire): Has my right hon. Friend ever fought a general election campaign on a promise to withdraw from Europe? Can he remind us whether the Foreign Secretary has ever done that?
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