Tag Archives: Euroscepticism

‘The Tory temperament means a U-turn on Europe is always possible’, Financial Times, 27 September 2017.

The prime minister’s speech in Florence may well help, in the short term, to clear some of the obstacles that currently stand in the way of the UK’s departure from the EU in 2019. But here is a heretical thought: … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Simply unstoppable or a self-inflicted wound?’, UK in a Changing Europe, 21 June 2016.

Today, we heard the Prime Minister give his final plea on why we should remain in the European Union, but if David Cameron ever truly believed he could stop his party ‘banging on about Europe’ when it finally got back … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘The Corn Laws analogy is misplaced. There’s no good reason why the Tories should split over Europe’, ConservativeHome, 17 May 2016.

An apocryphal aphorism coined by a firebrand left-wing legend might not be an obvious way to start a discussion about what could happen to the Conservative Party in the wake of the EU Referendum, but Nye Bevan surely had a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘David Cameron is not the man to shoot the Conservative Eurosceptic dog’, Telegraph, 10 May 2016

You know the Tory Civil War is back on when the body-snatching starts again in earnest.  A few weeks ago, Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, the MP for Mid-Sussex, made it plain that he took a dim view of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘The bloody history of civil war in the Tory party’, Financial Times, 27 February 2016

That the Conservative party believes as much in the strong state as it does in the free economy has long been both its triumph and its tragedy. Triumph because the combination of the two has often proved electorally unbeatable. Think … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Cameron and Tebbit are both wrong: Tory activists are not as set on leaving the EU as many imagine’ (with Monica Poletti and Paul Webb), 5 February 2016.

David Cameron has run into trouble for warning Tory backbenchers not to make up their minds on whether to campaign for Leave or Remain “because of what your constituency association might say”. The reaction to his remarks was swift and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘What Conservative MPs really think about Britain’s EU membership’ (with Philip Cowley), 2 February 2016.

There is a delicious irony in the fact that David Cameron, who ended up promising his party a referendum so as to avoid Europe tearing apart his government just as it tore apart John Major’s back in the 1990s, has … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘What they really think on Planet Tory’ (with Philip Cowley), Daily Telegraph, 1 February 2016

When The Telegraph broke the parliamentary expenses scandal back in 2009, many wondered what planet MPs were living on. In fact, they live on two. When it comes to their views on the EU, Tories in Westminster really are from … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Only 15 per cent of Conservative party members would vote to leave the EU’ (with Paul Webb) Telegraph, 15 June 2015

Europe is already impinging, if only indirectly on Labour’s leadership contest. Andy Burnham in particular has suggested the party needs to be careful it doesn’t ‘do a Scotland’ by associating itself so closely with an all-party campaign that it ruins … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment