Douglas Carswell's Blog

How's our top EU negotiator doing?

One of the consistent themes of this blog is that Britain gets disastrous deals from Europe because of the Europhile dealmakers we have negotiating on our behalf.

Erudite and intelligent, Britain's top EU mandarins see their role as splitting the difference between what ministers want and what the Euro system will allow. And because they only answer to other Whitehall mandarins, they can ignore what the voters think.

With all that in mind, how has the decision to appoint Gordon Brown's top EU adviser, Jon Cunliffe, as the Coalition's top EU negotiator worked out?

Last year, as we all know, David Cameron vetoed the new Fiscal Union treaty. Three cheers! He made it clear if the rest of Euroland wanted a Fiscal Union, they should set up seperate arrangements outside the EU. Bravo!

But since then, the small print deal making was been left to Cunliffe and co. Oops.

Tomorrow, I gather, we will discover that the Fiscal Union rules must be incorporated into the EU rules by 2017. So not really a veto at all, then eh.

Sounds like Sir Humphrey intends to get his way. Or is it too late for Parliament to sack Sir Humphrey?

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