Where we stand on Europe
People are tired of a European Union built from the top down, obsessing about its powers, not consulting the people. We need to change that. A Conservative government would never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe. Britain’s interests are best served by membership of a European Union that is an association of its nation states, working together on our common problems: keeping our economies competitive, securing our energy supplies and dealing with the world’s trouble spots.
A new Conservative government will protect Britain’s interests in Europe and salvage as much as we can from the mess that Labour have made.
First, we must make sure that never again can areas of power be handed over to the EU without a referendum. A Conservative government will pass a law – by amending the 1972 European Communities Act – so that any future treaty which hands over further of areas of power to the EU would be subject to a referendum – a referendum lock for which only the British people will have the key.
Recent events in Greece have shown how right we were to keep the pound. Amazingly, it is still the official aim of Labour and the Lib Dem policy to scrap the pound. A Conservative government will keep the pound and never take the UK into the Euro, and we will change the law to prevent any future government from doing so without a referendum.
We will also change the law by passing a UK Sovereignty Bill to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament, and does not belong to the EU.
These changes can be put in place by our own Parliament. They will put in place real protection for our democracy – protections other countries have but which are missing here in Britain.
But these measures are about preventing problems in the future. They do not deal with the problems we are facing today, which will now be made worse by the Lisbon Treaty: in essence, the steady and unaccountable intrusion of the European Union into almost every aspect of our lives.
A Conservative Government will address the most pressing problems by negotiating for three specific guarantees with our European partners to bring back powers that we believe should reside with Britain, not the EU: on those EU social and employment laws that are doing the most damage to our businesses and public services, on our criminal justice system and on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
These guarantees are essential and deliverable. Essential, because we have identified the areas of the Lisbon Treaty that cause the deepest concern, and the ones with greatest potential to interfere with our democracy. Deliverable, because we have chosen areas where the return of powers from the EU to Britain protects our distinctive national interests without harming the interests of our European partners.
If you, like me, believe that we need to change direction in Europe, protect our democracy and bring back powers from the EU there is only one way to vote at the forthcoming election: Conservative.
A vote for any other party only helps Gordon Brown, the man who broke Labour’s promise to hold a referendum on the European Constitution. We will need a proper majority to deliver our programme in Europe. So at the coming General Election, the Conservatives are asking the British people for a mandate to bring back powers from Brussels.
A new Conservative government will protect Britain’s interests in Europe and salvage as much as we can from the mess that Labour have made.
First, we must make sure that never again can areas of power be handed over to the EU without a referendum. A Conservative government will pass a law – by amending the 1972 European Communities Act – so that any future treaty which hands over further of areas of power to the EU would be subject to a referendum – a referendum lock for which only the British people will have the key.
Recent events in Greece have shown how right we were to keep the pound. Amazingly, it is still the official aim of Labour and the Lib Dem policy to scrap the pound. A Conservative government will keep the pound and never take the UK into the Euro, and we will change the law to prevent any future government from doing so without a referendum.
We will also change the law by passing a UK Sovereignty Bill to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament, and does not belong to the EU.
These changes can be put in place by our own Parliament. They will put in place real protection for our democracy – protections other countries have but which are missing here in Britain.
But these measures are about preventing problems in the future. They do not deal with the problems we are facing today, which will now be made worse by the Lisbon Treaty: in essence, the steady and unaccountable intrusion of the European Union into almost every aspect of our lives.
A Conservative Government will address the most pressing problems by negotiating for three specific guarantees with our European partners to bring back powers that we believe should reside with Britain, not the EU: on those EU social and employment laws that are doing the most damage to our businesses and public services, on our criminal justice system and on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
These guarantees are essential and deliverable. Essential, because we have identified the areas of the Lisbon Treaty that cause the deepest concern, and the ones with greatest potential to interfere with our democracy. Deliverable, because we have chosen areas where the return of powers from the EU to Britain protects our distinctive national interests without harming the interests of our European partners.
If you, like me, believe that we need to change direction in Europe, protect our democracy and bring back powers from the EU there is only one way to vote at the forthcoming election: Conservative.
A vote for any other party only helps Gordon Brown, the man who broke Labour’s promise to hold a referendum on the European Constitution. We will need a proper majority to deliver our programme in Europe. So at the coming General Election, the Conservatives are asking the British people for a mandate to bring back powers from Brussels.
Comments
The problem with referenda is the idea of a right and wrong answer. Ireland got it "wrong" on the Lisbon Treaty and are offered the question again, when they got it "right".
Though it's better than the "If you vote down what we want we will make a few minor changes and put it through without consulting you" approach of certain other countries.
However, my reading of the British character is that if the integrationists try that one, they're likely to get a far bigger majority against whatever was just voted down.
It'll be like the Winchester syndrome - when Mark Oaten won the seat by two votes as a result of a mistake by the election staff, and the Conservatives called a rerun of the election, voters clearly thought we should have accepted the first result and we lost the rerun not by two, but by some huge margin like 20,000.