THE TORY WIMPS OF STRASBOURG
Nigel Farage can't believe that the
Conservative party is serious in its opposition to a European superstate
THE day I became an MEP, a Tory friend said to me, 'You're making a grave mistake, young man. We're the real "independence party"; only we live in the real world, unlike your lot.' Since then, I have had many similar lectures from my Conservative friends (and yes, I do still have a few). They tell me that there is no need for the UK Independence party because the Tories are busily defending British interests and keeping the Brussels leviathan at bay. A vote for UKIP, they say, is a waste of time, yet in the same breath they accuse us of splitting the Euro-realist vote.
Underlying all these arguments is a mounting anxiety, verging on desperation. This is because UKIP is gaining in confidence and maturity as a party while the Tories leapfrog from one bandwagon to the next. While we promote the idea of a tolerant, outward-looking society based on the greatest possible individual freedom, the Conservatives drearily recite the selfcontradictory mantra 'In Europe, not run by Europe'. They might as well say 'Down, but not out', or 'Prone, but not prostrate'.
Although a UKIP MEP, I am a great admirer of the Conservative tradition. Its practical good sense and its distaste for over-regulation represent British democracy at its best. Most UKIP members, and most of the British people are conservatives with a small 'c'. We resent being part of a gigantic political experiment, the EU, to which we never gave our informed consent. It is because of my admiration for conservatism that I am saddened by the Tory party's failure to confront the truth about the European Union. Nowhere is this failure more acute than at Strasbourg. There, but for a few honourable exceptions, the Conservative MEPs have either 'gone native' or simply thrown in the towel.
In 1999 Edward McMillan-Scott, the Conservative leader in the European Parliament, promised to present a programme of `joined-up opposition'. William Hague, who thought up the 'In Europe, not run by Europe' mantra, assures us that the Conservative MEPs are men and women in the front line, whose five-year mission is to 'oppose centralising and federalist measures'. Voters are therefore asked to believe that the Strasbourg Tories are 'batting for Britain', that they stand between us and the bureaucrats, and that they oppose the use of the EU to bootleg politically correct schemes of social engineering.
Yet by their actions and rhetoric, most Tory MEPs show that they support the EU project, want it to succeed and believe that they can reform the EU. At times, their Euro-enthusiasm sounds almost mystical. John Purvis, the ex-Guards MEP for Scotland, proclaimed last October that 'a spiritual dimension is vital to Europe'. Left-wing Europhiles talk similarly of 'giving Europe a soul', by which they usually mean new regulations and charters of abstract rights. For the Tories, celestial visions stray into the economic sphere as well. 'We need a single sky over a single market,' opined the NorthWest region MEP Sir Robert Atkins, who acted as rapporteur for that policy. I spoke in the ensuing debate and said; 'I hope the single European sky will work better than the single European land or single European sea.' Atkins's colleague John Bowis vigorously championed the creation of a European food authority, which every Conservative MEP supported.
Watching the Tories in action reminds me of The Stepford Wives, in which the men of a New England town transform their independent womenfolk into zombies. Stepford Tories, such as James Elles, MEP, hail the 'birth of a political Europe' and believe that 'Mr Prodi needs to be supported in his reforms of the commission'. This is despite the fact that Mr Prodi believes that being in the EU means being run by the EU and admits it with refreshing candour. Roy Perry, MEP, is equally sycophantic. 'There can be no doubt,' he told the Parliament, 'that when history is written, the greatest achievement of the 20th century will be seen to be the creation of the EU.' It is more likely that history will judge the EU as another failed 20th-century experiment in state-imposed 'progress', like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
Conservatives were elected to the European Parliament to protect the British people from encroachments on our parliamentary democracy and common law. At home, they claim to be defending national sovereignty against creeping federalism. However, Jonathan Evans, representing the Welsh region, clearly forgot about this aspect of his manifesto when he pleaded last May for reassurance that there would never be 'a repatriation of competition policy'. Meanwhile, Bashir Khanbai (Eastern region) believes that West Africa's Tuareg nomads can learn lessons. in 'self-reliance and independence' from the EU. The idea that these brave people, who fought both colonialism and postcolonial dictatorships, should need EU experts to teach them anything is surreal.
Nor is 'culture' exempt from the Stepford Tories' concern. Roy Perry believes in cultural diversity but sees 'no threat' to it from the EU. Instead, he is outraged that European citizens should be seen 'drinking CocaCola, eating hamburgers, watching Hollywood films and often doing this at the same time'. Having endorsed the far Left (and far Right) critique of American cultural imperialism, he calls for EU action to give 'European' culture 'a helping hand'. The Tories have also failed to grasp the authoritarian implications of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, approved at Nice as an advisory document but destined to form the core of an EU constitution. In ideology and rhetoric, the charter resembles the old Soviet constitution, favouring 'social' or group rights over boring old individual rights like freedom of speech. But Dr Charles Tannock, MEP, regards it as 'noble in its intentions'.
There are a few Euro-realists among the Conservative MEPs. Daniel Harman treats the whole exercise with such contempt that he spoke only once last year, while Roger Helmer fulminates usefully on occasion. The Tory group's instinct, nonetheless, is to conform rather than confront. They will stand out occasionally (and unsuccessfully) against such absurdities as the 'ladder directive', which forces window cleaners to conduct 'risk assessments'. However, they are unable either to defend British interests or to reshape the EU from within. 'In Europe, but not run by Europe' is a stalling device in place of a policy. It is a compromise through which federalist and sceptic Tories avoid honest debate and so serve well the EU project.
The difference between UKIP and the Conservative party is that when we pledge to keep the pound and uphold British common law, we mean precisely what we say. That is why UKIP will be contesting 400 seats at the general election. The choice is between being in (which means run by) the EU and reclaiming our right to govern ourselves.
Nigel Farage is UK Independence party MEP for South-Eastern England.
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