| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): The Foreign Secretary treated us to an uncharacteristically weak performance. He is that rare exception in this ministerial team: a man who respects the House of Commons, reports regularly to it and is keen for us to debate these important issues. Unfortunately, today he failed us and the nation. He treated us to a rant. He gave us some elementary Euro-myths, got more aggressive the weaker his case was and failed to take the House, line by line, through the crucial discussions and debates in which he, the Prime Minister and his ministerial colleagues will participate on our behalf in the next few days. That is a great pity.
As a strong believer in parliamentary democracy, I feel that this Parliament should hear from our Government today, in this crucial debate, what they believe are the main issues that are now outstanding in the discussions on the draft constitution. They should tell us where they wish to go, what changes they are proposing and how they wish to pursue their amendments. Of course they need to keep a little mystery in their negotiating position. I would not expect them to set out the full bottom line, but I would expect them to set out the top line of their position and to tell us more about what they are trying to do for Britain to improve or perfect the draft constitution. It is even more incumbent on the Foreign Secretary to do that in the wake of the remarkable elections and the results that we learned subsequently—the elections that were held on Thursday and the results that came through on Sunday. If we consider the nationwide position, we find that about half the electorate voted either to withdraw from the European Community altogether or for much less Brussels power and interference in our daily lives, and back to the Conservative position of a renegotiation in favour of member states and member state democracies.
Compared with that, only a little over one fifth voted for the Government line—the lowest level that an incumbent Government have ever had in a nationwide election in this country in the past century. One might
16 Jun 2004 : Column 838
have thought that Ministers would explain that to the House. One might have thought that Ministers would show a little more humility and modesty in the wake of that shattering result for them, and would have genuflected at least a little in the direction of the British electorate's mood in what they said today in the House.
Instead, we were treated to a rather juvenile rant. There were two main arguments that the Foreign Secretary used to explain why we should sign up to something like the draft constitution, and why electors should learn their lesson from the Government that they are not Euro-friendly enough and must do better.
The first argument that the Foreign Secretary advanced was that the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, have prevented wars in Europe over the past 50 years. We should be treated to something a little more serious than that. Is the right hon. Gentleman suggesting that if France and Germany had not been members of the EEC and its successor body over the past 50 years, one of them would have invaded the other? Does he not realise that both are now, and have been since the second world war, stable democracies and peace-loving countries, and that they were never likely to express aggressive intents towards each other with or without the EU? Was he suggesting that bold and doughty Luxembourg was suddenly going to make territorial requests of its neighbours that might have fomented some hot conflict? He should understand that no one will believe the twaddle that peace in Europe was settled by several great developments post-1945.
The most important development was that all the major players became democracies, which tend to be peace-loving rather than aggressive, as tyrannies so often are. The second most important development was to put in place NATO for our common defence. The third was the maintained presence of the mighty American forces for many years just in case there were any signs of instability in the post-war period. That is why we have been blessed with peace in our time. It would not have mattered whether we had the EEC or not from that point of view.
The Foreign Secretary went on to say that the other main reason why we needed something like the constitution was that half our trade is with Europe. That again is a mistaken notion. It is true that about half of the trade in physical goods that our country does is with fellow member countries of the EU. However, it is a much smaller proportion of our trade in services and a smaller proportion again of the crucial investment flows that characterise so much of economic activity today.
Investment flows are in many ways evidence of a deeper economic relationship than trade and physical goods. It is quite easy for countries to buy and sell cars or washing machines without having a deep relationship. It is necessary to have a very deep relationship if we invest in one another's countries, putting long-term money into factories and employing one another's people in those factories. We have that sort of relationship, on a much greater scale, with the United States of America and with Asia than we do with our fellow partners in the EU.
The Foreign Secretary does not come to us and say that we must develop something like the EU relationship with the United States of America or with India, or with China, to preserve those important jobs
16 Jun 2004 : Column 839
and economic relationships. Again, he is guilty of misleading the House by suggesting that that is why we need to sign up to something like this constitution.
Mr. Forth: Before my right hon. Friend concludes that part of his argument, is it not relevant to recall that, sadly, manufacturing now employs less than 20 per cent. of our work force? Even more sadly, we have an enduring and enormous trade deficit with other members of the EU, which must be borne in mind when we hear empty threats that altering our relationship with those states would have dire consequences and result in protectionism?
Mr. Redwood: My right hon. Friend makes an important point. I do not believe that Germany and France would suddenly not want to sell us their motor cars, whatever happened to our relationship in the EU. They would not want to turn their back on such a lucrative trade. We should renegotiate, and I obviously wish to preserve and develop our trade with EU member states and the individuals and companies in those countries, which is why I support the position of the Conservative party rather than that of the United Kingdom Independence party. It is sensible to proceed by renegotiation and to seek to do so in a friendly way. However, we should do so with confidence in our own position. We are not the beggars in this scenario—we are offering other member states, as my right hon. Friend said, an extremely good deal. Not only do they sell us much more than we sell them, but we pay them for the privilege by making a large contribution to the club. We need to take such things into account when we begin renegotiation.
The Government have two big arguments against the Conservative policy of renegotiating to achieve more democratic control of our lives in Britain. First, they say that everyone knows that there is no opportunity for renegotiation in the EU, but they cannot get away with such an absurd proposition. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) said that we have taken part in a two-year radical renegotiation of everything to do with the EU, with the proposed abolition of existing treaties and the rewriting of the whole works. We have repeatedly told the Government that, because that huge renegotiation is under way, they should take the opportunity to achieve the things that Britain wants for a change instead of operating according to the Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Franco-German federalist agenda. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, the Government have failed to take advantage of that great opportunity. Once more, I remind the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary that they will not get a better chance to renegotiate than when everything is on the table. The whole thing is up in the air, so Her Majesty's Government must show that they have influence and use it not just for the sake of Britain and British democracy but for the sake of free peoples throughout the European Union who, as was recently demonstrated at the ballot box, want more local democratic control and want more things devolved from the centre to local jurisdictions.
16 Jun 2004 : Column 840
It was obvious from the election results of the new member states, where there were big rebuffs for the governing parties and massive abstentions, that they are already disillusioned and think that the EU is too bureaucratic, centralised and overweening. It is not listening to them or following their agendas. Our solution, to give more power to the democracies of individual member states, would help those countries and electorates just as it would surely help to further the British national interest. It might head off the dangerous flight to extremist parties, which is occurring across the EU as a result of disillusionment and an electoral system in which people cannot choose individual candidates but have to vote for parties. Their votes are counted in a strange way, so some people think that it pays to go to extremes to get their view across instead of voting for sensible, balanced coalition parties such as the Conservatives or, without wishing to flatter it, Labour.
The Government should seize the opportunity offered by the negotiations. There will be more negotiations, and I am sure that when the Conservatives come to power, EU member states will be sitting round the table trying to redesign the treaties and the constitution yet again. The present negotiations, however, are our best opportunity. This is the big one—everything is up for grabs, and we still have a veto over a considerable number of issues, which we could use to good effect to try to move things in our direction.
That brings me to the Government's second objection to the Conservative position. They try to make out that no one would listen and that the United Kingdom would have no influence if it wished to move the debate in the direction of more local government and national democratic control, and away from more centralising control, which is always favoured in these discussions. Again, the Government are misleading the public. Of course it would be quite possible for the British Government to propose all the amendments necessary to move in that direction. More importantly, it would be quite possible for the British Government to win many of those points and arguments by using the considerable powers and authority at their disposal.
I find myself in the curious position of saying to the British Government, "Be courageous. Believe what you say. You are always telling us that you have great influence in the EU. Here is a marvellous opportunity to prove it. Prove that you can get more than 10 out of 200 amendments through. Prove that you can table amendments that bring back to Britain things that we need to control here. Prove to us that you can save our fishing industry from the depredations of too much fishing under the common fisheries policy. Prove to us that you can reform the common agricultural policy in a way that would not only do good for Britain and British customers, but would do good for the developing world, which currently finds access to our markets blocked or restricted by a cruel policy designed to favour some on the continent, but not those everywhere else."
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |