Eu

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

The death knell for the Euro?

Are we witnessing the start of a very long death scene for the Euro? Asked if the Euro will survive, William Hague replied simply: “who knows?”. The new president, Herman Von Rompuy, has said that the Euro faces an “existential test”. We are looking at the very real prospect of the Euro’s collapse. And that “if we don’t survive with the eurozone, we will not survive with the European Union”. This would, by necessity, require a new treaty – and give Britain an unprecedented opportunity to renegotiate its membership on terms the public regard as acceptable. In my News of the World column today, I say (£) that this presents Cameron

Friday

Alex Massie

Irish Austerity Diet Revealed: Cheese

Somehow, I don’t think this kind of government assistance is going to be enough to soothe Irish woes: The Government is to distribute some 53 tonnes of free cheese to people in need in the run up to Christmas. Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith announced the EU-funded scheme today following talks with a number of charitable organisations. He said the cheese will be available free of charge for distribution to those most in need. It will be available from November 15th “in time for Christmas”. The State has been given more than €818,000 from the EU budget to purchase the cheese and the Irish Dairy Board has been awarded the

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Cameron's provocative language over Gaza serves to obscure the issue

And there’s me thinking that David Cameron’s overtures to Turkey were newsworthy enough, when he drops this into his speech in Ankara: “Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp. But as, hopefully, we move in the coming weeks to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians so it’s Turkey that can make the case for peace and Turkey that can help to press the parties to come together, and point the way to a just and viable solution.” In a wider sense, this

Tuesday

Alex Massie

The Malignancy of Ed Balls

I’ve only just got round to reading Ed Balls’ piece in the Observer in which he argues that Britain should be more protectionist in europe. Of course that’s not quite what he says, but “revisiting” the question of the free movement of peoples across the EU is essentially a protectionist measure. Anyway it reminded me of Evelyn Waugh’s response to the news that Randolph Churchill had successfully had a benign tumour removed: “It was a typical triumph of modern science, to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant, and remove it.” This is a little unfair on Labour since it had other achievements to boast of. Nevertheless,

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Is Blair’s bid for the EU presidency still alive, after all?

I still think there are too many hurdles standing in the way of Tony Blair, but it’s worth noting this passage from Ben Brogan’s latest blog post about our former PM’s chances of becoming EU President – particularly the bit I’ve highlighted in bold: “When the manoeuvring [by EU leaders] is stripped out, who is their first choice [for the EU presidency]? Weirdly, 12 or 13 say Blair. Strip out the ones who are dead against – Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria (now there’s a triple alliance to conjure with – talk about surrender monkeys) – and the Swedes who hold the presidency and that leaves you a sizeable majority and

Sunday

James Forsyth

The Tories' new line on Europe

Tim Montgomerie has the scoop that the Tories will not hold a referendum on Lisbon if it has been ratified by the next general election. A vote on Lisbon once it had been ratified would only have had moral force so the Tory policy shift is not a betrayal of Euro-scepticism. However, the party will seek a ‘manifesto mandate’ to begin negotiations to repatriate powers. The challenge for the Tories is to persuade the other member states to allow Britain to take back powers.  As Tim says, the Tories will need a savvy negotiator with strong Euro-sceptic instincts to take charge of this process. To my mind, Theresa Villiers, a