By Marjorie Smith
As unprincipled as ever, David Cameron's latest policy dumping is the 'cast-iron' guarantee he made to his party, that he would deliver a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
To those who defend his current position as mere pragmatism and a reaction to 'facts on the ground', this is errant nonsense and exposes Cameron for what he is - adept tactically but a strategic fool and a political coward.
When he gave his 'cast-iron' guarantee in Rupert 'Mendacity' Murdoch's Sun in September 2007 that he would deliver a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty he made himself a hostage to fortune. Anybody influential in right-wing circles (except William Hague it seems) should have cautioned Cameron with the advice to make his guarantee conditional.
All that was needed was the addition of the phrase "only if the Treaty has not been ratified by all 27 Member states of the EU and consequently passed into EU law". He could even have buried that conditional phrase somewhere in the latter paragraphs of the Sun article and still got the headlines he desired.
It is appalling that he either did not receive (highly doubtful) or refused to listen (highly likely) to advice that there was at least a 50/50 chance that the Lisbon Treaty would be law before a general election would take place in the UK.
Regarding the accusation of poetical cowardice, Cameron knew before his party's conference (five short weeks ago) that his position on the 'cast-iron guarantee' was untenable, as he almost certainly would have been informed by his close pal and fellow neocon, the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus that he would have to sign the Czech ratification sometime soon. Cameron was well aware that Klaus' signature on the Czech ratification would lift the last barrier to the Lisbon Treaty becoming EU law.
Yet, in his speech to the Tory faithful, he made no mention of his policy u-turn, no effort to prepare the ground for his reversal, no reference to the foolhardiness of his original guarantee. He simply chose to ignore it and for the whole of the conference hoped it would go away.
This though is not the end of Cameron's contortions, in a speech today he is will lay-out his latest position concerning the EU. In it he will promise to aggressively pursue a policy of repatriating powers from the EU. Furthermore, he will promise referendums on all future EU Treaties (or will he mean it?).
Firstly, his promise to get the UK to opt-out of the social chapter is doomed to abject failure. Like Cervantes' Don Quixote tilting at windmills in La Mancha he will singularly fail to achieve anything of any substance in any negotiations that might take place. Quite simply, the rest of the EU are not going to let the UK under a Tory Government practice social dumping at the expense of the other 26 Member States. He migh even be able to persuade a couple of other right-wing governments of the merits of his argument. His only problem is that he has to persuade all 27. Tilting at Windmills, anyone?
Secondly, his promise to hold referendums on all future EU treaties will also be shown to be hollow, if he ever gets into power. Is he seriously considering holding a referendum on the accession of Croatia or Montenegro to the EU? As any accession means that an EU treaty (an accession treaty) has to be agreed unanimously by all Member States.
If not that, what about an accession treaty that has some minor changes to how the EU is run? If not that, how about an accession treaty that has some substantial changes that are manifestly in the UK's interests, will he put that to a referendum?
Cameron is in thrall to his profoundly eurosceptic party,hence all his fifficulties with his vile partners in the European Parliament. He has neither the political commitment or the strategic vision to takeon his party over Europe and wil instead continue to pander to their petty prejudices.
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