Into Europe Backwards
”I CAN only go one way. I’ve not got a reverse gear.’
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| ‘I’m a pretty straight kind of guy’ |
No Spanish tank, our Tony; more a non-functioning British one that gets to the front line and then jams at the moment of truth.
Until yesterday Tony Blair had been driving Britain full steam ahead towards acceptance of the European Constitution.
Tony had only to lift his pen and sign on the dotted line for Britain to have, in effect, a new set of governing rules. The decision had been made.
But now things have changed. Now, as the Guardian tells us, Britain will accept the EU constitution only if the people demand it.
‘It’s time to resolve once and for all whether this country wants to be at the heart of European decision-making or not,’ said Tony in the Commons yesterday.
‘Let the Eurosceptics…make their case. Let those of us who believe in Britain in Europe because, above all, we believe in Britain, make ours. Let issues be put. Let battle commence.’
Hang your head in shame, Henry V. Once more into the breach and all that has nothing on our Tony, whose call to arms demands that those who believe in Britain march into the fray backwards.
Unhappily for Tony, Her Majesty’s Opposition is armed to the teeth. And yesterday, its leader, Michael Howard, showed his pearly whites in a broad smile as he repelled Tony’s attack.
‘Six months ago,’ he said, ‘the Prime Minister told his party with all the lip-quivering intensity for which he has become famous: ‘I can only go one way. I’ve got no reverse gear.’
‘Today you can hear the gears grinding as he came before us, lips quivering once again, to eat all those words.’
Howard then, according to the Telegraph, dubbed Blair ‘The Grand Old Duke of Spin’, marching his party’s MPs up to the top of the hill (they voted against a referendum just three weeks ago), before marching them back down again.
The name calling is not without its merits, but Howard may like to note that whereas the Duke of York, on whom he based his Duke of Spin, had 10,000 men, Tony’s happy band is just 319 strong.
Which may not be enough to win the day when the votes are counted…’
Posted: 21st, April 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
