You read that right readers, following Ed Miliband`s ruling out of a EU referendum our Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to follow suit, In an interview with the Telegraph the PM makes clear his policy on the EU :
"A growing number of Conservatives, including many MPs, blame many of the
problems facing the British economy on unnecessary European interference and
regulation. They are demanding an in-or-out referendum which would pave the
way for Britain to leave the EU.
The Prime Minister insists that those calling for an immediate referendum have
a “perfectly honourable position”. He wants to negotiate a “new settlement”
with the EU with powers returned to Britain. But Mr Cameron will not
countenance leaving the EU and says he would never campaign for an “out”
vote in a referendum.
“I think it would be bad for Britain,” he says. “When I look at what is in our
national interest, we are not some country that looks in on ourself or
retreats from the world. Britain’s interest – trading a vast share of our
GDP – is to be in those markets. Not just buying, selling, investing,
receiving investment but also helping to write the rules. If we were
outside, we wouldn’t be able to do that.”
He adds: “It comes back to this, who are going to be the winning nations for
the 21st century? If your vision of Britain was that we should just withdraw
and become a sort of greater Switzerland, I think that would be a complete
denial of our national interests.”
We all knew that David Cameron was no Baroness Thatcher and i pointed out other day that some friends of David say he is "Not a Conservative actually"but each day that passes demonstrates that the blue lot are not any better than the red lot.
As someone once said :
"If voting changed anything, they would ban it"
Just one thing tho, What is wrong with Switzerland?
Nothing at all wrong with Switzerland, a rich and happy country that has stayed that way by keeping its distance from other nations. The same comparison has also been made with Norway, which stayed out of the EU as the result of a referendum, didn't squander the revenue from its North Sea oil and gas field, and now has the fourth highest per capita income in the world.
ReplyDeleteI think that what Cameron (may asses dance on the graves of his ancestors) fears most about these places is that Switzerland has frequent referendums about anything that its citizens can get a reasonable number of signatures for; and Norway, as I said, stayed out of the Euromess as the result of a referendum. These countries give power to the people, not to the elite as Cameron would want.
I am going out tonight with two Norwegians who have been dear friends for many years. They are both teachers and the husband is a well-published author in Norway (not a huge market!)
ReplyDeleteNormally one thinks teachers and the word socialist springs to mind. Not a bit of it, these two. Both firmly right wing and dismissive of state interference.
But the tales they tell of Norwegian society are harrowing. When they had their first daughter (now a mother) someone came round regularly from the council. All very friendly seeming but, in fact, snooping. They were directed to do things this way or that way and being young, they simply complied.
If anyone had ever come to my house and tried that on, I would have simply shown them the door, assuming they would have gained entry in the first place...
But I had gone to Norway in the 1980s and saw how the price of drink was so high, due to taxes, that it was tantamount to prohibition.
Like you, Tachy, I had been an admirer of the Norwegian model of independence but, upon closer inspection and most regretfully, it seems to be an interfering Fabian, collectivist model of nanny state that still manages, despite all its misguided efforts to throw up an Anders Breivik.
Forgot to mention. My friend is quite an inventive type. He had gone on the waiting list for a phone and the waiting list was a revolving six month one, i.e. as each month ticked by another month would be added to the wait.
DeleteHe thought of mentioning this in front of the minder. The phone was mysteriously installed the following week.
I lived in Norway for a short time during the 1960s. The interfering nanny state was already much in evidence, though I am sure it's worse now, as everywhere. But the people were hardily indifferent to it and managed, by one means or another, to escape its worse effects. The price of alcohol, then as now, was astonishing, which was circumvented by a good deal of home distilling. The product was called plankesaft, 'plank juice', because of jokes about it being wood alcohol -- methyl alcohol, very poisonous. But actually, Norwegians are efficient people, and it was reasonably OK vodka-like stuff. I think you could still live there reasonably if you didn't let the buggers grind you down.
DeleteHad a lovely meal last night with my friends from Norway and bade them fond farewell for this year.
DeleteOne of the things that would make it impossible for me to live there is my love of wine. I was a heavy drinker in my youth (most of us are) but now I am happy to drink wine with my food as a digestant. When I stop eating, I stop drinking. For a normally light lunch, I will also have a pint of Guinness or a cask ale. I can be persuaded into a second if I am with a heavy drinker.
The key to enjoyment (for me) is quality, not quantity.
It is noticeable that my Norwegian friends have not had the ability to develop a connoisseur taste in alcohol because of its frightful price. I have been fortunate enough to have drunk the best of wines, not always the most expensive, BTW. The same goes for Liqueurs, Port, aperitifs, beers and the like.
It is not snobbism, it is truly an education. Something which the leaden dogma of the nanny state culture is determined to avoid at all costs...