Douglas Carswell's Blog

Lord Mandelson seems ridiculous

I respect Peter Mandelson in the sense that I believe he is a dangerous foe. He is able to frame debates in order to trip up his opponents. He understands communications in a way that many in the Tory fold do not.

So what to make of his piece in today's Independent on Sunday? Read it. Baron Mandelson of Foy is being ridiculous.

Lord M accepts that EU institutions are "too bureaucratic and unaccountable". The EU is "run with insufficient public consent". No kidding.

But what is his Lordship's answer? Not some "artificial argument" about whether Britain should quit the EU, he claims. Not returning powers to member states. A "non-starter", says Lord M.

No. We need instead to "sit down and talk" about "shared European concerns". Such as? "Competitiveness and structural reform".

Where do you suppose Mandelson was at the time of the Lisbon agenda, which over a decade ago promised to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world"?

For years, we Euro sceptics have pointed out that the EU is flawed. We have questioned not only its democratic legitimacy. We have pointed out that having a tiny technocracy impose one-size-fits-all policy is likely to lead to public policy sclerosis.

Yet, Mandelson can't seem to bring himself to admit that those beastly Euroscpetics were right all along. Instead he writes that "it is not only Britain's Eurosceptics who are raising questions about EU governance".

The folk who were sceptical about the EU project, seems to be the subtext, are still wrong because the people who said it was wonderful have now started to realise it isn't.

Is this the best those who believe in the EU project can do? Or is the EU project now only sustained by those with a vested interest in the Brussels system?

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