What are we to make of all the commentators, mostly left-wing, rushing forward to tell us that David Cameron is the new John Major and that the Tory party is "yet again tearing itself apart over Europe"?
Melissa Kite in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/14/rebellion-cameron-maastricht-revolt-europe
Richard Morris in the New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/tory-rebellion-leaves-cameron-new-john-major
Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ed-milibands-euro-heroics-might-1885712
I thought at first these were self-deluded people, misreading the situation because they oh-so-desperately want the John Major years to come back (they were happy days for Labour).
And then it occurred to me that this was just politicking - no serious comparison was being made with John Major it was simply the usual yakety-yak of columnists who need something to say to fill the yawning column chasm each week.
But there seems to be no let-up in the number of leftie journalists wanting to make the David Cameron / John Major connection.
Which leads me to conclude that these people don't really know what they are talking about. They appear to know nothing about the John Major years. They appear to know less than nothing about the current Tory party and its members.
John Major and his Cabinet were loathed and despised by their own party not because of their stance on Europe but because of what they did to Margaret Thatcher ("treachery with a smile on its face"). Rebellion over Europe was a symptom of that hatred (and hatred is not too strong a word) not a cause. By the time the 1997 election arrived many party members were content to see the Conservative party defeated not because they wanted a Blair government but because they wanted revenge on the Thatchercides.
This is clearly not the case now. David Cameron is a Eurosceptic as are the vast majority of the parliamentary party, paid party employees and voluntary party activists. There is no "civil war" over Europe, only a disagreement over the pace, timing and degree of Eurosceptic policy - how far and how fast we move towards the exit.
Indeed, it is notable that the only pro-Europeans being wheeled out are from the 1990s - where are the current government ministers (or even backbenchers) who are fervently making the case in favour of the EU as it is?
There are no pro-EU apologists speaking out. Not because they are afraid to speak out (as Isobel Hardman seems to suggest). But because they don't exist in any significant numbers.
Melissa Kite in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/14/rebellion-cameron-maastricht-revolt-europe
Richard Morris in the New Statesman: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/tory-rebellion-leaves-cameron-new-john-major
Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ed-milibands-euro-heroics-might-1885712
I thought at first these were self-deluded people, misreading the situation because they oh-so-desperately want the John Major years to come back (they were happy days for Labour).
And then it occurred to me that this was just politicking - no serious comparison was being made with John Major it was simply the usual yakety-yak of columnists who need something to say to fill the yawning column chasm each week.
But there seems to be no let-up in the number of leftie journalists wanting to make the David Cameron / John Major connection.
Which leads me to conclude that these people don't really know what they are talking about. They appear to know nothing about the John Major years. They appear to know less than nothing about the current Tory party and its members.
John Major and his Cabinet were loathed and despised by their own party not because of their stance on Europe but because of what they did to Margaret Thatcher ("treachery with a smile on its face"). Rebellion over Europe was a symptom of that hatred (and hatred is not too strong a word) not a cause. By the time the 1997 election arrived many party members were content to see the Conservative party defeated not because they wanted a Blair government but because they wanted revenge on the Thatchercides.
This is clearly not the case now. David Cameron is a Eurosceptic as are the vast majority of the parliamentary party, paid party employees and voluntary party activists. There is no "civil war" over Europe, only a disagreement over the pace, timing and degree of Eurosceptic policy - how far and how fast we move towards the exit.
Indeed, it is notable that the only pro-Europeans being wheeled out are from the 1990s - where are the current government ministers (or even backbenchers) who are fervently making the case in favour of the EU as it is?
There are no pro-EU apologists speaking out. Not because they are afraid to speak out (as Isobel Hardman seems to suggest). But because they don't exist in any significant numbers.
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