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| Hammond: Will he win back UKIP voters to the Conservatives? |
"If the choice is between a European Union written exactly as it is today and not being a part of that then I have to say that I'm on the side of the argument that Michael Gove has put forward. I believe that we have to negotiate a better solution that works better for Britain if we are going to stay in."
He also told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme last year:
Pointing out the obvious may have its advantages. If EU reform is to happen to the extent needed to persuade the British people to stay in the EU, other EU leaders need to understand that it cannot be tokenistic. In that sense, Hammond's appointment sends a clear message both at home and abroad - reform is not just desirable but fundamental to the UK's EU membership.
It will also have political benefits for the Conservatives. Hammond will now see the Conservative's EU policy through to the 2015 election and, assuming they win, attempt to force the actual reform agenda through before taking a leading role in the referendum. Having a figure who has said that reform must be substantial for him to back an 'in' will add credibility to their election campaign and help win back voters who have left to vote for UKIP.
But we think it's fair to say that Hammond is the most eurosceptic Tory Foreign Secretary since Viscount Halifax in 1939.
"I believe that we have to negotiate a better solution that works better for Britain if we are going to stay in and play a part in the European Union in the future, but let me be absolutely clear: I think it is defeatist to sort of say we want to leave the European Union."Is this a big deal? Well the logic of the Conservative position has always been that advocating an 'in' vote is dependant on achieving reform. Therefore stating the opposite - that no reform might lead to an 'out' is not that much of a revelation - Cameron himself has said a UK exit would be "imaginable". However, the key question is the threshold - how much needs to change for a Tory to vote Yes (In)? And Hammond definitely has a higher threshold than Hague.
"We should say no, this is a club that we are members of, and before we talk about leaving it, first of all we're going to try and change the rules and change the way it works and change the objectives that it has in order to make it something that works for Britain."
Pointing out the obvious may have its advantages. If EU reform is to happen to the extent needed to persuade the British people to stay in the EU, other EU leaders need to understand that it cannot be tokenistic. In that sense, Hammond's appointment sends a clear message both at home and abroad - reform is not just desirable but fundamental to the UK's EU membership.
It will also have political benefits for the Conservatives. Hammond will now see the Conservative's EU policy through to the 2015 election and, assuming they win, attempt to force the actual reform agenda through before taking a leading role in the referendum. Having a figure who has said that reform must be substantial for him to back an 'in' will add credibility to their election campaign and help win back voters who have left to vote for UKIP.
But we think it's fair to say that Hammond is the most eurosceptic Tory Foreign Secretary since Viscount Halifax in 1939.
6 comments:
Mr. Hammond still has a long way to go though in his understanding of the animal he is dealing with. To stretch his own 'club' analogy, he doesn't seem to acknowledge that most of the members of this club want to join together to form one giant club whereas the population of the UK want to operate on there own as part of a league. Oh and the EU Club is playing football whilst the UK wants to play cricket.
OK, I know, as an analogy extension it's a bit thin but then so is expectation that merely having a more EU sceptical UK foreign minister is going to make the EU Commissioners and the leaders of the other EU states sit up and say: "wow, this man talks so much sense that we're going to change the way the EU works altogether and agree a whole new treaty that will make Mr. Hammond and his fellow, ever so sensible Brits, stay with us in Euroland and be happy."
Fantasy land.
If Cameron is the Wayne Rooney of Europe, (He comes; he shoots; he misses; he goes home) then who is Hammond? Part of the same team?
Hague provided the Tory party with a "eurosceptic" façade to hide the truth that it has long been and still is a eurofederalist party.
But now that façade is worn out and riddled with too many holes through which increasing numbers of voters can see the reality that lies behind it; so it is being replaced with a new façade, a chap called Philip Hammond who is relatively little known but who by the accounts of the Tory supporting press is even more of a fierce "eurosceptic" than Hague was previously thought to be.
You see, back in May 2013 Hammond followed Gove by saying that if the EU didn't change then he would be prepared to leave it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22500121
But adding of course that first of all Cameron should be given the chance to change it and bring back powers, which would make it acceptable.
"I believe that we have to negotiate a better solution that works better for Britain if we are going to stay in and play a part in the European Union in the future, but let me be absolutely clear: I think it is defeatist to sort of say we want to leave the European Union.
"We should say no, this is a club that we are members of, and before we talk about leaving it, first of all we're going to try and change the rules and change the way it works and change the objectives that it has in order to make it something that works for Britain."
And if people believe that would be possible then they will believe anything.
He may be being primed to take that role, and team up with the other actors Redwood,Carswell,Hannan and the rest, who all talk a good eurosceptic line but have very strict comfort zones they will not part from. The first being the unthinkable of not being a tory/conservative with all the faux gravitas that they think comes with it. Unfortunately they don't see Cameron laughing at them, and they cannot allow themselves to listen to us, as voters after all, what do we know?
There is no such thing as a Tory Eurosceptic.
Either they join UKIP or they are pro-EUSSR.
End of story.
Doesn't make any difference the foreign secretary doesn't have any clout with the eussr anyway.
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