Sulking in the corner of Europe - by Francis Sedgemore
During a speech on Monday of this week, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso effectively challenged the two likely contenders for the UK premiership at the next general election to choose whether Britain is to play a leading role in Europe, or continue sulking in the corner. Just ignore for one moment the pointless regulations, farce over the proposed constitution, and trade battles with the US. The EU has many faults, but José Manuel Barroso made some very good points in his Chatham House address. I would go further and say that the UK's semi-detached stance vis-à-vis the union of which it has been a member for over 30 years is destructive for both the UK and Europe as a whole.
The sad fact is that in Gordon Brown and David Cameron we have two eurosceptic party leaders, both of whom could become prime minister of the United Kingdom. Even the Liberal Democrats seem to have gone all flabby on the EU, for fear of alienating a supposedly europhobic public.
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