Back to FTdotcomment homepageTory commentators don’t quite know what to say about Europe. David Cameron’s decision not to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has left right-wing bloggers and columnists as divided as the party itself.
As Adrian Hamilton writes in the Independent, this may have been the Conservative party leader’s “Clause IV moment”, the point at which he stood up to his party and defined himself as a leader. Except that his previous and subsequent actions (pulling out from the centre-right European People’s Party grouping in the European parliament; promising to hold a referendum on any future accession of powers to Brussels), align him much more closely with the Eurosceptics in his party.
In part, Cameron’s tone has kept enough of the party faithful happy. Melanchthon, writing for ConservativeHome, calls the Tory leader’s stance “the triumph of Euroscepticism”, saying that a referendum was never a Eurosceptic position. Melanchthon contests that Cameron’s promise of a “sovereignty bill” was all that he and others wanted anyway.
Daniel Finkelstein for the Times says much the same thing, calling Cameron “a real Eurosceptic”, while Guido Fawkes regards it more as a triumph of realpolitik. But those relatively supportive comments are not universal.
Right-wing blogger Iain Martin, writing for the Wall Street Journal, says that this was “the week that British Euroscepticism was defeated”, saying the Lisbon Treaty is a victory for Presidents Sarkozy and Merkel. Of repatriating powers from Brussels, he writes: “It is hard to see it amounting to much.”
But even Martin pulls his punches somewhat. He strikes a resigned, rather than angered tone, and though there is some bitter irony in his latest post, which suggests Cameron may have trouble winning the unquestioning trust of his party again, he refuses to put the boot into Cameron himself.
Over at one outlet that never pulls its punches, the Daily Mail, there is predictable rage. The paper calls this week’s events a “desperately sad moment for British democracy and sovereignty”. But even the Mail knows which side its bread is likely to be buttered after the next election, and reserves its fiercest criticism, predictably, for the Labour party, whom it says are the “true scoundrels in this debacle”.
From initial reactions, it seems that Cameron has survived this potentially damaging episode unscathed. And, perhaps counter-intuitively, he may have been delighted by the fresh round of news stories in the papers on Thursday morning.
The Guardian’s story that French politicians have labelled his pledge to repatriate powers to Britain “pathetic” and “autistic” will only have helped stabilise his position among mainstream Eurosceptics in the party.
Meanwhile, the news of Daniel Hannan’s resignation from his post in the European parliament may also come as something of a relief for Cameron. Hannan, after all, was the man who became a darling of the American right when he called the NHS a “60 -year mistake”. That kind of comment could be far more of a threat to Cameron’s chances of winning next year’s election than anything he could say on Europe - although he has promised to keep up calls for a referendum from the backbenches.
