Here is most of Cameron's speech and my comments on it:
COMMENTS BY DAVID ROSEMONT ON THE SPEECH MADE BY DAVID CAMERON BRITISH PRIME MINISTER ON 23 JANUARY 2013
Britain is at yet another crossroads. Things may get better but could certainly get much worse.
Listen to Cameron (his words in light who is fighting in an ever reducing corner (my words in bold):
“This morning I want to talk about the future of Europe.
But first, let us remember the past.
Seventy years ago, Europe was being torn apart by its second catastrophic conflict in a generation. A war which saw the streets of European cities strewn with rubble. The skies of London lit by flames night after night. And millions dead across the world in the battle for peace and liberty”.
There were two major wars centered on the conflicts of old Europe. However the world is a different place now. British ideas of power and influence are becoming more and more distant memories, and are increasingly dreams of only the British.
“As we remember their sacrifice, so we should also remember how the shift in Europe from war to sustained peace came about. It did not happen like a change in the weather. It happened because of determined work over generations. A commitment to friendship and a resolve never to re-visit that dark past - a commitment epitomised by the Elysee Treaty signed 50 years ago this week.
After the Berlin Wall came down I visited that city and I will never forget it.
The abandoned checkpoints. The sense of excitement about the future. The knowledge that a great continent was coming together. Healing those wounds of our history is the central story of the European Union”.
I was at Checkpoint Charlie just as it became the centre of East/West conflict in 1962. I saw the eastern bloc countries at first hand but many of those have made convincingly better progress economically and socially than Britain since the wall came down. As an ex pat who occasionally visits Britain I am often ashamed at the poor economic and social progress Britain has made in my lifetime.
“What Churchill described as the twin marauders of war and tyranny have been almost entirely banished from our continent. Today, hundreds of millions dwell in freedom, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from the Western Approaches to the Aegean.”
One needs to define freedom. One wonders how the many deprived citizens of Britain concede that real progress has been made without multiple sacrifice, and whether, if progress has been made, it would have been greater in isolation. Can Britain effectively act in isolation in a more and more globally active world?
“And while we must never take this for granted, the first purpose of the European Union – to secure peace – has been achieved and we should pay tribute to all those in the EU, alongside NATO, who made that happen.”
Actually France wasn’t in Nato for quite a lot of the intervening period. The fact that they are now back in should remind us all that Britain is as incapable of acting independently. Let alone if Scotland becomes independent.
“But today the main, over-riding purpose of the European Union is different: not to win peace, but to secure prosperity.”
Gross over simplification. As so many Europeans have stated today Europe is not a self service cherry picking corner shop.
“The challenges come not from within this continent but outside it. From the surging economies in the East and South. Of course a growing world economy benefits us all, but we should be in no doubt that a new global race of nations is underway today.
A race for the wealth and jobs of the future.”
So right but can it be done in independence? Equally can Europe be competitive without some severe renegotiation of stultifying bureaucracy and increasing taxation and centralization?
“The map of global influence is changing before our eyes. And these changes are already being felt by the entrepreneur in the Netherlands, the worker in Germany, the family in Britain.”
Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of expats who have already circulated within Europe.
“So I want to speak to you today with urgency and frankness about the European Union and how it must change – both to deliver prosperity and to retain the support of its peoples.
But first, I want to set out the spirit in which I approach these issues”.
Shome mhistake shurely? What about the nation in its widest context?
“I know that the United Kingdom is sometimes seen as an argumentative and rather strong-minded member of the family of European nations.
And it’s true that our geography has shaped our psychology.
We have the character of an island nation – independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty.
We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel.
And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.”
Regrettably most of the little Englanders are in fact objecting more in terms of imagined emotions and little in terms of practical issues.
“For us, the European Union is a means to an end – prosperity, stability, the anchor of freedom and democracy both within Europe and beyond her shores - not an end in itself.
We insistently ask: How? Why? To what end?
But all this doesn’t make us somehow un-European. The fact is that ours is not just an island story – it is also a continental story”.
This needs proper explanation to the full extent of the likely effects of withdrawal.
“For all our connections to the rest of the world – of which we are rightly proud - we have always been a European power – and we always will be.”
Britons fondly imagine that Europe wants them in to the full extent. That is becoming an increasingly imaginative interpretation. 70% of the French want Britain out apparently.
“From Caesar’s legions to the Napoleonic Wars. From the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution to the defeat of Nazism. We have helped to write European history, and Europe has helped write ours.
Over the years, Britain has made her own, unique contribution to Europe. We have provided a haven to those fleeing tyranny and persecution. And in Europe’s darkest hour, we helped keep the flame of liberty alight. Across the continent, in silent cemeteries, lie the hundreds of thousands of British servicemen who gave their lives for Europe’s freedom.”
Gross oversimplification from the Biggles History Annual.
“In more recent decades, we have played our part in tearing down the Iron Curtain and championing the entry into the EU of those countries that lost so many years to Communism. And contained in this history is the crucial point about Britain, our national character, our attitude to Europe.”
The maintenance of a weak buffer suited post war British diplomacy. By the time the wall came down the remaining vestiges of British influence were small indeed.
“Britain is characterised not just by its independence but, above all, by its openness.
We have always been a country that reaches out. That turns its face to the world… That leads the charge in the fight for global trade and against protectionism.
This is Britain today, as it’s always been: Independent, yes – but open, too.
I never want us to pull up the drawbridge and retreat from the world.
I am not a British isolationist.”
You may not be but are you going to be winning the arguments? You will need help from outside the circle of your party fundamentalists and UKIP.
“But I do want a better deal for Britain, not just a better deal for Europe.
So I speak as British Prime Minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active part.”
Little Englanders have encouraged Europeans to take the advantage.
“Some might then ask: why raise fundamental questions about the future of Europe when Europe is already in the midst of a deep crisis?”
The depth of the crisis in Europe may well need remeasurement. Britain may well lose its AAA rating and these rabid soul searching negotiations will not help.
“Why raise questions about Britain’s role when support in Britain is already so thin.
There are always voices that say “don’t ask the difficult questions.”
Don’t assume that support in the UK is thin. Have the options been really fully explained?
“But it’s essential for Europe – and for Britain - that we do because there are three major challenges confronting us today.
First, the problems in the Eurozone are driving fundamental change in Europe.” Positive management of change is vital to the survival of any society. Fond remembrances of a world that was are no longer adequate.
“Second, there is a crisis of European competitiveness, as other nations across the world soar ahead.”
The UK is already embedded in Europe at every level. Partners will no longer accept continuing cherry picking if Britain decides to go it alone.
“And third, there is a gap between the EU and its citizens which has grown dramatically in recent years. And which represents a lack of democratic accountability and consent that is – yes – felt particularly acutely in Britain.
If we don’t address these challenges, the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit.”
Certainly there is a job of education to do at every level in the community.
“I do not want that to happen. I want the European Union to be a success. And I want a relationship between Britain and the EU that keeps us in it.”
One certainly supports the notion that one can build on success, but the real risks of failure need to be properly explained.
“That is why I am here today: To acknowledge the nature of the challenges we face. To set out how I believe the European Union should respond to them. And to explain what I want to achieve for Britain and its place within the European Union.
So let me start with the nature of the challenges we face.
First, the Eurozone.
The future shape of Europe is being forged. There are some serious questions that will define the future of the European Union – and the future of every country within it.
The Union is changing to help fix the currency – and that has profound implications for all of us, whether we are in the single currency or not.
Britain is not in the single currency, and we’re not going to be. But we all need the Eurozone to have the right governance and structures to secure a successful currency for the long term.”
It’s not just about jobs and commerce but about society at every level.
“And those of us outside the Eurozone also need certain safeguards to ensure, for example, that our access to the Single Market is not in any way compromised.
And it’s right we begin to discuss these issues now.”
There is daily reducing appetite for the British way in the world of European negotiations.
“Second, while there are some countries within the EU which are doing pretty well. Taken as a whole, Europe’s share of world output is projected to fall by almost a third in the next two decades. This is the competitiveness challenge – and much of our weakness in meeting it I, frankly, self-inflicted.”
Those encouraging the little England approach have offered no sustainable alternative options.
“Complex rules restricting our labour markets are not some naturally occurring phenomenon. Just as excessive regulation is not some external plague that's been visited on our businesses.”
Over bureaucratic and over centralized government is not just a feature of Europe but if Britain wants access to her markets then Britain will in any event have to knuckle under. To be involved in the negotiations is far better.
“These problems have been around for too long. And the progress in dealing with them has been far too slow.”
Undoubtedly true but then has Britain been the most committed member?
“As Chancellor Merkel has said - Europe today accounts for just over 7 per cent of the world's population, produces around 25 per cent of global GDP. It currently has to finance 50 per cent of global social spending, then it's obvious that it will have to work very hard to maintain its prosperity and way of life.”
As a country of declining influence and power then Britain is going to have to adapt more quickly than some other countries.
“Third, there is a growing frustration that the EU is seen as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf. And this is being intensified by the very solutions required to resolve the economic problems.”
Certainly true but this clearly requires action not handringing.
“People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent.
We are starting to see this in the demonstrations on the streets of Athens, Madrid and Rome. We are seeing it in the parliaments of Berlin, Helsinki and the Hague.
And yes, of course, we are seeing this frustration with the EU very dramatically here in the United Kingdom.”
As a British expat taxed in France and in the UK and shortly to be relieved of any national vote (amongst many such hundreds of thousands) then one’s frustration is very keen indeed.
“Europe’s leaders have a duty to hear these concerns. Indeed, we have a duty to act on them. And not just to fix the problems in the Eurozone.”
Politicians would do well to consider the views of the large number of expats in Europe as well as those still within Britain.
“For just as in any emergency you should plan for the aftermath as well as dealing with the present crisis so too in the midst of the present challenges we should plan for the future, and what the world will look like when the difficulties in the Eurozone have been overcome.”
One welcomes the notion that politicians are there to overcome problems; perhaps they would do as well to listen to those other than the shrill minority.
“Now, the biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point.”
Burning at the stake of verity would perhaps be a welcome option for the scaremongers and false prophets of little England.
“And my point is this. More of the same will not secure a long-term future for the Eurozone. More of the same will not see the European Union keeping pace with the new powerhouse economies. More of the same will not bring the European Union any closer to its citizens. More of the same will just produce more of the same – less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.”
He makes sound points, but a hermit wailing on a windswept off shore island will not be heard in the gale of global frenzy.
“And that will make our countries weaker not stronger.
That is why we need fundamental, far-reaching change.
So let me set out my vision for a new European Union, fit for the 21st Century.
It is built on five principles.
The first: competitiveness. At the core of the European Union must be, as it is now, the single market. Britain is at the heart of that Single Market, and must remain so.
But when the Single Market remains incomplete in services, in energy and in digital – the very sectors that are the engines of a modern economy - it is only half the success that it could be.
It is nonsense that people shopping online in some parts of Europe are unable to access the best deals because of where they live. I want completing the single market to be our driving mission.”
How true. As a simple example you could buy off Marks and Spencer UK website any of their goods for competitive delivery to France. You can no longer do that.
“I want us to be at the forefront of transformative trade deals with the US, Japan and India as part of the drive towards global free trade. And I want us to be pushing to exempt Europe's smallest entrepreneurial companies from more EU Directives.
These should be the tasks that get European officials up in the morning – and keep them working late into the night. And so we urgently need to address the sclerotic, ineffective decision making that is holding us back.”
Britain will undoubtedly lose many investors if no longer closely associated with the EU.
“That means creating a leaner, less bureaucratic Union, relentlessly focused on helping its member countries to compete.
In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions?
Can we justify a Commission that gets ever larger?
Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multi-billion pound budget but not nearly enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven’t worked?”
As a great lady once said “No, No, No”.
“And I would ask: when the competitiveness of the Single Market is so important, why is there an environment council, a transport council, an education council but not a single market council?
The second principle should be flexibility.
We need a structure that can accommodate the diversity of the EU’s members – North, South, East, West, large, small, old and new. Some of whom are contemplating much closer economic and political integration. And many others, including Britain, who would never embrace that goal.
I accept, of course, that for the single market to function we need a common set of rules and a way of enforcing them. But we also need to be able to respond quickly to the latest developments and trends.
Competitiveness demands flexibility, choice and openness - or Europe will fetch up in a no-man’s land between the rising economies of Asia and market-driven North America.
The EU must be able to act with the speed and flexibility of a network, not the cumbersome rigidity of a bloc.
We must not be weighed down by an insistence on a one size fits all approach which implies that all countries want the same level of integration. The fact is that they don’t and we shouldn’t assert that they do.
Some will claim that this offends a central tenet of the EU’s founding philosophy. I say it merely reflects the reality of the European Union today. 17 members are part of the Eurozone. 10 are not.
26 European countries are members of Schengen – including four outside the European Union – Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. 2 EU countries – Britain and Ireland – have retained their border controls.
Some members, like Britain and France, are ready, willing and able to take action in Libya or Mali. Others are uncomfortable with the use of military force.
Let’s welcome that diversity, instead of trying to snuff it out.
Let’s stop all this talk of two-speed Europe, of fast lanes and slow lanes, of countries missing trains and buses, and consign the whole weary caravan of metaphors to a permanent siding.
Instead, let’s start from this proposition: we are a family of democratic nations, all members of one European Union, whose essential foundation is the single market rather than the single currency. Those of us outside the euro recognise that those in it are likely to need to make some big institutional changes.
By the same token, the members of the Eurozone should accept that we, and indeed all Member States, will have changes that we need to safeguard our interests and strengthen our democratic legitimacy. And we should be able to make these changes too.
Some say this will unravel the principle of the EU – and that you can’t pick and choose on the basis of what your nation needs.
But far from unravelling the EU, this will in fact bind its Members more closely because such flexible, willing cooperation is a much stronger glue than compulsion from the centre.
Let me make a further heretical proposition.
The European Treaty commits the Member States to “lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”.
This has been consistently interpreted as applying not to the peoples but rather to the states and institutions compounded by a European Court of Justice that has consistently supported greater centralisation.
We understand and respect the right of others to maintain their commitment to this goal. But for Britain – and perhaps for others - it is not the objective.
And we would be much more comfortable if the Treaty specifically said so freeing those who want to go further, faster, to do so, without being held back by the others.
So to those who say we have no vision for Europe.
I say we have.
We believe in a flexible union of free member states who share treaties and institutions and pursue together the ideal of co-operation. To represent and promote the values of European civilisation in the world. To advance our shared interests by using our collective power to open markets. And to build a strong economic base across the whole of Europe.
And we believe in our nations working together to protect the security and diversity of our energy supplies. To tackle climate change and global poverty. To work together against terrorism and organised crime. And to continue to welcome new countries into the EU.
This vision of flexibility and co-operation is not the same as those who want to build an ever closer political union – but it is just as valid.”
When local democracy is being encouraged at every level why is the archaic notion of centralization so favoured by many in Europe?