The Daily
Mail boils today over the news that the public consultation over binning
bad laws has been run with earplugs. Some readers will not be surprised; others
will be vexed.
Responding
to suggestions over the EU, the FCO issued a statement
that reiterates existing policy - acknowledging without addressing the
weight of public concerns (Hat tip: Open Europe).
Short of
the skies parting and the earth splitting asunder, this was to be expected.
Proposals however heart-felt that called for the country’s withdrawal from the
EU would evidently never be adopted by the Government, and these were clearly
the dominant opinion coming across about Brussels.
Meanwhile, the country
is facing a financial crisis. Three budgets have been ring fenced – the NHS and
International Development by choice, and the EU by default. But the EU budget,
to which we are major net contributors, should share the
burden.
Our EU
proposal correspondingly took a practical tack. A not insignificant contributor
to our payments deficit was the 2008 Act, putting into force the Tony Blair
deal that gave up part of the Rebate in exchange for CAP reform. That reform
never appeared, so it’s time to rescind the Act and get our money back.
It’s both
achievable and doesn’t breach either governing party’s manifesto (summarised here
and here).
The moderator
of the consultation website has invited us to submit it to the Chancellor’s “Spending
Challenge”, which we did today. Will it all
go the same way as Eurosceptic submissions during the Convention on the Future
of Europe? Perhaps. But as Lord Tebbit observes, if you don’t try, silence is
treated as consent. You can register
withholding your consent on handing over £2 billion of British taxpayers’ money
here.
