Oct 20 2007
Brown’s approach to the EU is absurd
Gordon Brown insulted the intelligence of the British people by his cack handed attempt to divert attention from the constitutional complexities of the Treaty to the issues of jobs and prosperity. He tried to make the news a move by the EU from introspection (i.e. power grabbing) to using these new found powers to tackle the problems of unemployment and poverty throughout the EU.
It was as if he had said to an alcoholic, drunk on the heady brew of taking power away from member states, you can have one more blinder of a drinking session if you promise to sober up and do something useful afterwards. The truth is the EU will be so bloated by bureaucracy, legal arguments, regulation and stupid policies that it will not be able to sober up to create an atmosphere that allows more jobs and prosperity to emerge.
That is why some of us oppose the development of more and bigger government in Brussels. If more laws and more bureaucrats created wealth the EU would already be the wealthiest part of the world.
The questions to Mr Brown on his vision of a useful EU are these
1. When will he propose serious deregulation to tackle the massive cost imposed by EU laws - estimated by Commissioner Verhuegen at ??400 billion? (285 kg of law code - a lot to carry round, let alone read and comply with) - and does he have any friends to push it through?
2. Why did he agree to a revised Article 58 to allow state protectionism?
3. Why did he agree to Article 1 of Protocol 9 widening the opportunity to support state monopolies?
4. When will the EU cut its budgets so we can keep more of our money, making it available for savings and investment in jobs and prosperity?
5. When will the Lisbon agenda be implemented, aiming to make the EU the most competitive knowledge based economy in the world?
6. Why does he think the EU has so much unemployment?
7. Which parts of the new Treaty give the EU powers which could lead to more jobs and prosperity? I must have missed them!
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I’m optimistic that the former eastern bloc countries might prod our leaders out of their complacency regarding the EU. Many of these countries are in the enviable position of ditching their Soviet era bureaucracy and being able to replace it with a much leaner state more suited to the 21st century. They’re in the same position as we once were in mistakenly believing they’re signing up to something with economic trade benefits as a priority. With each bastardised constitution that’s quickly wafted before our eyes this myth is becoming harder to maintain. This will be exacerbated if Mandelson continues to indulge in the EU’s favourite activity ‘protectionism’ towards China (I suspect that, despite its patriotic buying habits, Germany has finally started to suffer a serious migration of manufacturing to China - this bee must have flown into his bonnet from somewhere).