No, not the war in Afghanistan. I refer to the eurosceptic fight. We have won, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. How do I know this? Well, I have been given a copy of The Taxpayers' Alliance's 08/09 Review and it is quite clear to me that they have achieved all that the rest of us have been working for all these years.What's that? You are asking what it is they have achieved? Really, how can you be so cynical? They have had campaigns against the EU Rip-Off, produced a possible ad that tells everyone who is not completely asleep that the EU costs us a lot of money and have worn t-shirts against the Common Fisheries Policy. As readers may recall, I mentioned the demonstration at the time.
Anyway, the Review is very glossy with lots of pictures and two pages devoted to the European Union, which comes in the section Policy Influence. This must mean that somehow, somewhere they have influenced somebodies policy on the EU. So there you are, I told you we have won.
What do you mean, there have been no changes in anybody's policy with regards to the EU? I fail to see what that has to do with anything. After all, they quote Tim Montgomerie, who, apparently said, possibly after a very good dinner, that
The Taxpayers' Alliance is more likely to deliver Eurosceptic change than UKIP.It is, perhaps, as well that Mr Montgomerie, who is, himself a member of Better Off Out, did not specify what those eurosceptic changes might be. For the TPA tends to finish all its reports, which are always the first ever on the subject, with suggestions of what the EU should do to reform itself. No suggestions on formation of Porcine Air Force but, I am sure, that is only a matter of time.
Anyhow, the section concludes with the following encouraging paragraph:
The EU campaign continues apace. We are already rallying support in the City against the EU's proposed financial directives, which seriously endanger the hedge fund industry. Later in the year we will publish an exciting short book, exploring the opportunities for Britain in a new relationship with our fellow European countries.Let us not worry about the curious grammatical and syntactic structure. Let us look at content only.
Of course, the problem of the financial directives (part of a ten-year programme for the consolidation of the finance industry within the EU) has never been raised by anybody, not on this blog, not in the House of Lords, not at Bruges Group meetings, not in the City itself. How thankful we are that the TPA has come along and started campaigning.
Above all, we are looking forward to their ideas of how those "opportunities in a new relationship with our fellow European countries" are to be achieved. Exactly what methods of change will the boys and girls at the TPA be proposing. Can't wait for the exciting short book to be published later in the year.
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