Prime Minister David Cameron’s ever-so-slightly more robust rhetoric on European Union treaty change is betrayed by recent government announcements which play further into the hands of the EU expansionists.
Take a look at this story, in the Daily Star, the headline of which reads like it was written by a Conservative Party press officer: “‘Better EU deal or Brexit starts here’ David Cameron’s threat to Euro leaders”.
In reality, the body of the article says no such thing. Cameron’s own words sound more like the orphan Oliver Twist than a leader making “threats”. He’s approaching the EU Commissioners with his begging bowl. “Please sirs, I want some of our sovereignty back… if I don’t get it, I’ll have to admit that ghastly Mr Farage was right all along.”
It isn’t one hundred per cent certain that Mr Cameron’s “renegotiation” strategy will fall flat on its face. But it is incredibly far fetched that any conversations that occur between a self-professed ‘in’ campaigner like him, and the EU overlords he needs to win over on Eurosceptics’ behalf will yield anything beyond a superficial offer.
“I love the EU, Mr Juncker,” he’ll begin. “And you ARE the EU… all I’m saying is, I need a reason to declare victory at home and keep us in this expansionist political union. Then the debate will be settled for a generation and you can continue to send us cheap migrant labour and we’ll continue to send you billions in tax payer money, ok?”
“No problem, Dave.” And so the stitch up will conclude.
But Mr Cameron’s not counting on us all being well informed enough to see what he’s doing here. He thinks the government can sneak out announcements like this on a Friday afternoon, and that no one will notice.
Yesterday, the gov.uk website announced: “Prime Minister announces support for Eastern European reforms”.
Reforms? That sounds nice, as does “…tackling corruption, improving access to justice and advising small businesses”. If you believe that our government should be doing that sort of thing in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova – coincidentally the very same countries the European Union continues to provoke Russia over.
I personally don’t think it is in the British people’s interests to be twisting the knife when tensions with Russia are at a post Cold War high, call me crazy. And the £20m the British government has announced for this ‘Good Governance Fund’ not only now directly implicates us in this, it builds upon the work that the European Union has been doing in undermining Russia through buffer states like Ukraine.
£20m may not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things considering how much of our money the European Union has already poured into the Eastern Partnership and subsequent work in the region. But it is indicative of what Cameron’s government thinks: the EU should expand, and that Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova are a core part of this, having signed association agreements in 2014.
So when Mr Cameron “threatens” a Brexit, let’s consider that in the context of what he is actually doing in government – using British taxpayers’ money to help expand the European Union, while glossing over it with fluffy, diplomatic language as contained in the government’s press release on the matter:
“These initiatives will help to improve the business environment and encourage investment, strengthen a free and independent media, and support judicial reform. This is driven by the aspirations of these countries and will help them build a better future for their people.”
What it really means is that the money will be spent propagandising for those countries’ EU membership, for a “free and independent” media that will support these aims, and for “judicial reform” that makes it easier to push through those countries’ respective governments.
And sure, the British government isn’t exactly concealing these facts by putting out a press release on it. But what it also knows is that no news outlet is going to cover such seemingly boring, process-driven releases, and if they do, they won’t put it into the context that matters.
Mr Cameron is a Europhile, and that won’t change. Why anyone would trust him to “negotiate a better deal” on our behalves is something that I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
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