What is he doing about it? Why won’t he get on with renegotiating the UK position?Because he knows he'll come away empty handed. He is bound to fail and he knows it. Hague is like some superannuated stripper. The publicity promises much, but the goods are bound to disappoint. He knows he can't deliver from the EU, that cat-calls and derision are inevitable once his failure quickly becomes obvious.
So he has to keep tantalising with promises.
Look, the EU is not some club where you can ask nicely and they'll give you some powers back. The EU ethos is to regard its territories as one country. That's why we can't deport Romanian cash machine thieves, that's why people from other EU countries will have the same social security entitlements as the rest of us, that's why being part of the EU is a succession of rearguard actions, against the Commission and against France in particular.
That's why it's politically useful to promise repatriation of powers. But don't make the mistake of getting started, or the audience will quickly see that you can't deliver at all.
2 comments:
Exactly John and that no-one can see that Redwood is but part of this smoke 'n mirrors politics we have at the moment is almost beyond belief.
As you say, why start something which you know you can't do and then suffer the arrows of ridicule?
They are all wedded to one basic political philosophy. Only fight battles you can win - stuff principles.
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