Douglas Carswell's Blog

What Cameron needs to do to restore trust over Europe

In today's Telegraph, I outline three things David Cameron needs to do to restore trust over Europe;

1. Any New Deal means appointing new deal makers

The top Whitehall mandarins who handle Euro negotiations can no longer be relied upon. They see it as their job to broker deals half way between what British ministers want, and what the Eurosystem will allow. Give Sir Humphrey a P45 and appoint a chief negotiator who owes their loyalty to Downing Street and Parliament, not the Whitehall mandarinate.

2. Assert the supremacy of Parliament

Order the new negotiator to insist on a repatriation of certain powers as a quid pro quo for allowing EU treaty changes - and return powers not withstanding the 1972 European Communities Act. What matters less than the content of any "shopping list" is that we make it clear that if Parliament says the Act no longer applies, it does not apply.

3. Accept the necessity of a referendum

Regardless of any "here today / forgotten tomorrow" initiatives Downing Street might now announce about the EU, momentum for a referendum is unstoppable.

Cameron the moderniser should recognise that deferential democracy is dead, and make it clear that when the referendum happens, it will be a choice between the New Deal or Out, rather than any New Deal v the Status Quo.

Why? Because even with a new negotiator, that is the only way we can incentivise the Brussels and Whitehall elite to give us a New Deal worth having. Only when they know that the New Deal will have to win majority support from the British people over the option of coming out altogether, will the Sir Humphrey's stop managing ministers and start driving a hard bargain with Brussels.

Perhaps a fourth thing I might have added is that when it comes to Europe, Downing Street ought perhaps listen a little less to its stable of pet media pundits. However much the commentariat might like to pontificate on the subject, most have no direct experience of how to win swing votes in marginal seats. One or two have some experience of trying and failing to do so.

Being well connected in SW1 is not the same thing as being plugged in with the voters, on Europe or anything else. Those who recycle one another's opinions in Westminster are perhaps the last people to advise you on how to engage with voters outside it.

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