torystrategy

Tory hypocrisy on CAP

In the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster Michael Howard gave a speech to the Centre for Social Justice on what we in the rich world can do to help the poor.

In one of the best passages, he said for us to lecture developing countries on free trade while we maintain our own trade barriers is “immoral and hypocritical”.

And yet when it came to the biggest trade barrier of them all – the Common Agricultural Policy, the Conservative Party decided to adopt a policy of the rankest immorality and hypocrisy.

Beyond the usual weasel words about the need for further reform (at some unspecified point in the future) we said nothing that would cause Greek tobacco farmers to lose any sleep. Not only were we outflanked by the Labour Party manifesto (which at least including a timetable for the removal of export subsidies), we were also outflanked by that arch-europhile Lord Radice who effectively called for the scrapping of the CAP and repatriation of agriculture policy to each member state.

Imagine if the Conservative Party had called for the scrapping of the CAP. It wouldn’t have won us the election, of course. But, now, as the EU budget goes into meltdown – we’d have been seen as the visionaries. Not only would scrapping the CAP solve the EU’s dodgy finances, it would also give African farmers a fairer deal and give EU nation states an opportunity to reshape farm support in a way that actually protected the countryside instead of destroying it.

Instead, we are left with nothing to say while Tony Blair swings the handbag. The really galling thing is that scrapping the CAP should be a completely obvious way forward for a freemarket, eurosceptic party. There are many other issues where a much harder rethink is needed, but this one should have been a no-brainer.

Until the party learns to think outside of the box, or even dares to lift the lid and has peak at the wider world, we will remain irrelevant – which is exactly what we have shown ourselves to be over the weekend.

Shame on all concerned.

Conservatives must force European leaders to face up to the continent's weaknesses

The defeats of Ken Clarke, in 1997 by William Hague and by Iain Duncan Smith in 2001, were essential to the building of the Euroscepticism of today’s Conservative Party. If it had been up to Ken Britain would have signed up to the euro and the kind of misery that it has caused millions of unemployed Europeans. We would also have been enthusiastic supporters of the Constitution and its centralising, undemocratic tendencies.

It is essential that the Tories do not forsake the high ground of European policy wrought over recent years - just as other European parties are realising the folly of the Chirac-Schroeder path. And, yes, that means that Ken Clarke cannot be the next Conservative leader.

Europe faces four big tests in the next few years:

(1) Can its member economies undertake the kind of Thatcherite reforms that will see the continent compete with the world's emerging economies? Ken Clarke, a good Chancellor of the Exchequer from '93 to' 97, does support market reforms but his enthusiasm for the euro straightjacket puts him on the wrong side of a fundamental economic question. Fixing the exchange rate between divergent economies is suicidal - as Italy is discovering.

(2) Will it fight the war on terror? Old Europe currently has its head in the sand on this one - wishing that the threat of Muslim terror would disappear if we are only nice enough to that Mr bin Laden. Rogue nations and terrorist networks are linked in deadly alliances. We may not (God forbid) succeed in breaking those alliances but Bush, Blair and Howard (John) are right to try to do so.

(3) Will it open its hearts and minds to the needs of the world's poorest nations? An EU cow currently receives twice as much subsidy as most Africans have to live on. Forgiving debt and increasing aid are both welcome signs of global responsibility but Europe (and America) will only have earnt 'good neighbour' status when they open their markets to the world's poorest people.

(4) Will it tackle its demographic timebomb? Although the number of people aged 65 and over as a proportion of those aged 20 to 64 will jump from 22% to 37% in the USA by 2050, it will double to 52% - from 26% - in the EU. The European Commission estimates that Germany will be particularly badly affected by these population trends. 10.3% of German national income already goes on pensions. By 2040 pensions will be consuming 15.4% of GDP. Europe needs to start breeding!

Europe's leaders aren't facing up to those four challenges at the moment. As Iain Duncan Smith has remarked:

"Faced with weak tax revenues, the European Union’s leaders duck the big decisions about labour market reform and complain about Britain’s budgetary rebate. Faced with the uncompetitiveness of their own economies, they duck the difficult issues of tax reform and complain about the flat tax dynamism of Central Europe’s economies. Faced with Africa’s poverty, European politicians conjure up some promises of extra aid but do nothing about the trade barriers that cripple third world producers."

It is essential that the Conservative Party - led by a Eurosceptic leadership - forces the EU to get real.