25/11/2014
Boiling Frog does his
own review of the speech. It makes an interesting contrast with
Conservative Home. OP meanwhile is on
Daily Politics, setting out his case.
TBF is working on turning it into a
YouTube clip, and the latest version of the speech is
here, with the press release
here.
ITV
gets the point, reporting that Paterson is warning David Cameron he quit the EU immediately in order to give voters a "proper choice" between a trade partnership or joining the Euro. Britain would inevitably be dragged into the single currency "applying to leave the EU" would mean other nations would be "legally bound" to enter negotiations before a planned in/out referendum in 2017.
The former Environmental Secretary insisted Britain could leave the EU but still remain part of the Single Market, warning that the Eurozone had "already embarked upon a path that we can never follow". He said activating the two-year mechanism to leave the EU would leave British people with a clear choice ahead of the referendum.
This is something the Europhiles should take up. If they are that certain of the merits of the EU, then they should welcome an "all or nothing" referendum which gives them a chance of taking the UK into the euro. After two years of debate, the public should be well prepared to answer the question "in or out?", making this the most effective way of resolving the issue.
A
Complete Bastard compliments UKIP for staying out of the debate and leaving it to the grown-ups, while Isabel Hardman asks in the
Spectator whether Owen Paterson hoping to become leader of the "out" camp in the 2017 referendum.
And for once, it seems,
TCB and
The Telegraph are
on the same page, with Paterson calling Conservative MPs who defect to the UK Independence Party are "stupid".
Carswell on
Politics Today has already been sidelined by today's plan and now Paterson has dismissed the "glib Ukip solution" as "childish" â just leaving the EU - will not resolve the problem.
"We have to recognise that we are an open trading country and we do need to bring in skilled people. But it is always a question of balance. There are only two [MPs who have defected]. It would be very unwise if any others do go, most unwise".
Paterson then goes on to say: "What is clear is that if you defect you donât get the referendum, so if you are very keen on a referendum as a Conservative party backbencher you are very stupid to go and defect".
The paper now is almost out on its own as it conveys Paterson's views on Britain withdrawing from the European Court of Human Rights. It would be easier to stop EU migrants coming to the UK, he says: "Much of the problematical immigration into this country stems not just from the EU but from the European Court of Human Rights".
Lifting from the speech, we get to be told: "This is exacerbated by the rulings of judges in the court at Strasbourg and by our own UK courts implementing the Human Rights Act".
"Repeal of the HRA and adoption of a new Bill of Rights, breaking free from the ECHR, would also relieve us of migrant pressure, include such absurdities as not being able to deport illegal immigrants who come to Calais, because â according to our judges â France is not a 'safe' country for asylum seekers".
This, at least, is more accurate reporting than
Breitbart is able to manage, this online news site suggesting that Mr Paterson "has called for Britain to leave the EU and negotiate a new free trade agreement with Europe". Negotiating a new free trade agreement is, of course, precisely what Mr Paterson hasn't recommended, leaving readers to puzzle out on their own why the "Norway option" has been chosen as the mechanism for leaving the EU.
Michael Deacon, parliamentary sketchwriter for the
Telegraph doesn't do a much better job, attempting a lame parody over the importance to voters of invoking Article 50. Little do these hacks realise how openly they are parading their ignorance, not least Mr Montgomerie of
Conservative Home who is writing of the "little known" Article 50.
Deacon is one of those who could have benefitted from reading
Melanie Phillips. She suggests that Paterson is "principled, intelligent and brave". "There aren't many like that in mainstream politics", she adds. "Sacking him was as telling as it was stupid. His approach is key to the regeneration not just of conservatism but of Britain. Watch him therefore get attacked â or more lethally, just ignored".
Unlike the vacuous clever-dicks, Phillips is actually interested in the history that Paterson has to offer. "He makes the interesting point that the idea of a government of Europe was first conceived by Jean Monnet not as a response to Nazism but to the earlier slaughter of the First World War", she notes â the only person (so far) to go into print to make this point.
The
Guardian, in the form of
John Crace, however, manages to both attack Paterson and ignore him â or at least, the points he makes, relying on the oh, so funny mispronunciation of "Yurp" and some crass comments about badgers, thereby filling his column with emptiness.
In the
real Guardian Paterson is allowed to say: "We can leave the political project and enter into a truly economic project with Europe via the European Free Trade Association and the EEA. We would still enjoy the trading benefits of the EU, without the huge cost of the political baggage".
"We need to pick a proven, off-the-shelf plan. However, our participation in the single market is fundamental to protecting the UKâs economic position. This brings us to the only realistic option, which is to stay within the EEA agreement".
"The EEA is tailor made for this purpose and can be adopted by joining Efta first. This becomes the 'Norway option'. We have already seen that Norway has more influence in international decision-making than we do as an EU member state. Using the EEA ensures full access to the single market and provides immediate cover for leaving the political arrangements of the EU".
"The changes would allow Britain to gain greater control of its borders because Britain would also leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)". Paterson said: "Outside the EU and freed from the writ of the ECHR, 'freedom of movement' within the EEA could be limited to free movement of workers, without having to accept dependants and members of their extended families".
"This is exactly what David Cameron wants when he said last year that he thought free movement within the EU 'needed to be returned to the original concept, which was the freedom to be able to go and work in another country'. But, if we are to benefit from the single market, we must at least accept that provision".
And that's enough for today ... I'll pick up the theme again tomorrow.
