Liam Fox gets on with his job

This blog hasn't given much attention to Liam Fox since the former Tory Chairman gave a speech to Politeia, just a few days after Tony Blair was re-elected with 35.5% of the vote.

But if Dr Fox hasn't been penning lots of articles about the future strategy of the Conservative Party he has been enthusiastically welcoming the French 'non' and Dutch 'nee' votes. Just this morning the Shadow Foreign Secretary - a job it is said that Dr Fox has long wanted - was on the Today programme arguing that the European Union had passed the high water mark of integration and now was an opportunity to fundamentally redraw the whole EU.

On conservatives.com he pinned much of the blame for the Constitution on Tony Blair:

"This was the Constitution which Tony Blair negotiated and put his name to. If his Government now tries to implement any part of the Constitution by the back door, they will be treating the British people with contempt. If that happens, the Conservative Party will insist on a referendum to give the British people their legitimate voice."

Dr Fox highlighted the Treaty's common foreign policy, QMV (qualified majority voting) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights as each requiring the consent of British voters. He was responding to reports that EU Commissioners are considering implementing parts of the rejected Constitution in bite-sized packages - none of which would be put before nation states for approval. Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has already betrayed the ostrich-head-in-the-sand position of some of Europe's elite with these words: "The show must go on... the ratification process must continue in the other countries."

Comments

[James Hellyer]

"We have already had people from the commission this morning talking about how they 'interpret' the French vote. What don't they understand? No is no.

"If the government in this country or the commission try to breathe life into this corpse, then we in Britain we must have a say to deliver the final blow."

- Liam Fox

I couldn't agree more.

[Jack Stone]

Of the leadership contenders from the right of the party I think Liam Fox is by far and away the most impressive.Intelligent, likeable and an excellent speaker both in the House of Commons and in the media I think that unlike other right-wing contenders he if were leader could appeal to voters outside of the party`s core support.

[Mark Higgins]

Liam Fox has been exemplary throughout this week. Out of all the politicians doing the media rounds prior to the 'Non' and the 'Nee' he has made the most sense, building on that excellent speech he made entitled "Let Freedom reign". he appears to be the only one to recognise that the diverse array of reasons behind the two negative votes is the very matter that dooms the ever-closer union to failure. We have different legal, political, social and economic cultures across the continent, and that is a wonderful thing. To try and squeeze them all into a straight-jacket envisaged by the commission and certain governments is stuff of nonsense and more importantly, inherently dangerous as European history repeatedly shows.

My worry about Liam Fox is that He's got to consider that the party might need to change its approach somewhat and his declarations that we don't need to change, full stop, are not encouraging in this regard. He could quite easily alter this by putting his conception of freedom at the forefront of his campaign, in the same manner as he did so articulately a few days after the election. If he adopts this course--and I sincerely hope he does--then I would be tempted to give him my full support in the leadership race.

[Mark Higgins]

All that being said, I must say that after yesterday's performance in the Commons I was a bit disappointed in Dr Fox. It was passionate yes, it may have sounded inspirational, but Dr Fox still needs to home his technique a bit more. there is passage after passage in that treaty he could have read out to drive his points home and push Mr Straw further back onto the ropes. It wasn't a bad speech, but as a future leader, might he just be a bit too impulsive to come across as prime minister in waiting?