Simon Clarke: The EU and the challenge of change

Simon Clarke, an activist in Hammersmith and Fulham and former President of the Oxford University Conservative Association, suggests Eurosceptics should learn from the success of Libertas.

Not so very long ago I distinctly remember a debate on the Daily Telegraph's letters page about travelling in Europe, which prompted a submission from one loyal reader to the effect that he was unconcerned, given that 'I have never left England and never want to'.

Good value for raising a smile over the breakfast coffee. However, this is precisely the sort of material which Gordon Brown thrives on as he lines up cheap gags about the Conservatives' relationship with the EU. No matter what the context, no matter how serious the issue or abuse being discussed, Labour has a stock response: Tories are Little Englanders, out-of-touch, maybe even a little xenophobic. They don't like the EU because they don't like Europeans, and they shouldn't be taken seriously.

Obviously this is nonsense, and the Conservatives are by a distance the most in touch with popular sentiment about Europe of the three main parties. Yet in the round, I have to say that I believe that the party's current European policy is not as ambitious as are other aspects of the developing Cameron blueprint. Our principles on this subject are clear and well-rehearsed. But they are consistently overshadowed by issues ranging from MEPs' expenses to the vexed question as to whether a future Tory government would hold a post-ratification referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and suffer from the absence of a compelling over-arching theme.