Scaredy Cat

I've posted one or two of Dan Hodges' comment pieces on the blog site - and here's another one from the Times newspaper that's bang on target - if you ask me.

Now I'm very pro-European, as a general rule, and while I think lots of things in the way that the Eurpean Union (EU) behaves need a good boot up the arse - I'm in favour of close cooperation with our EU neighbours and member states.

But I'm also very cynical about politicians and political parties who seldom want the voting public to have their own say - whether it's about important EU treaties or Devo Max for Scotland - the instinct of our politicians is that we're all too stupid to make these big decisions on our own.

So, I'm with Dan on this one - because Ed Miliband is proving himself to be every bit as big a 'feartie' (a Scots word for 'Scaredy Cat') as his former Labour mentor - Gordon Brown.      

Ed blows his chance to stoke a Tory civil war

By Dan Hodges

Labour has turned into an anti-referendum party that doesn’t trust the voters

Yesterday morning Ed Miliband’s shadow Cabinet assembled for its weekly meeting. Top of its agenda was a golden opportunity for Labour to pour petrol on the blazing European row inside the Conservative Party.

All Mr Miliband needed to say was that circumstances had changed since he had questioned the need for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. It was now obvious, he could have intoned sagely, that the Conservative Party was so paralysed by its obsession with Europe that it was necessary for the issue to be put to bed.

For good measure he could have argued that the economic uncertainty caused by the internal Tory debate was endangering the nation’s prosperity and the prospects of overseas investment in Britain. And he could have concluded by offering to give the British people a vote on Europe on the same day as the next European Parliamentary Elections, in June 2014. In that moment he would have dared Tory MPs to join him in delivering that referendum or risk looking like they were all mouth and no trousers.

Cool heads within Tory ranks would have spotted the trap, but as we’ve seen over the past few days they are currently in short supply. What’s more, the spectacle of being outflanked on Europe — by Red Ed of all people — would have cast a chill down the spines of even moderate Tory MPs, many of whom are already unnerved by the UKIP threat.

David Cameron would have faced a choice: accede to Mr Miliband’s call for an early referendum or run the risk of turning infighting into an all out insurrection. And if he did accept Mr Miliband’s challenge, then what? Would Mr Cameron campaign for withdrawal from Europe and potentially preside over a diplomatic and economic calamity? Or fight to stay in, and find himself damned by his own party for what they would see as one of history’s great political betrayals?

Either way, Ed Miliband couldn’t lose. But being Ed Miliband, he has lost. Not for the first time, Labour’s leader has blown it.

“Ed said the focus should stay on the Tories”, said one shadow Cabinet insider. “He thinks we now have a platform for our case on Europe. We should stick to it”.

Presented with the opportunity to seize the day and potentially hasten the end of the coalition, Mr Miliband instead opted for a short press release. It stated: “Labour have said that we don’t think committing now to an in/out referendum up to four years from now is in the national interest.”

Labour’s leader litters his speeches with talk of tough choices. But he never makes them. For months before the Prime Minister’s first major Euro-announcement, a number of Mr Miliband’s colleagues urged him to steal a march on Mr Cameron and pledge a referendum himself. He chose to dither. It wasn’t so much “wait and see” but “wait, then wait some more”.

Liam Byrne, his shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, urged him to change his position on welfare, sensing the political risks it posed for Labour. Again, Mr Miliband ignored him.

Time after time Mr Miliband was urged to toughen Labour’s line on spending and the deficit. Yet as recently as a fortnight ago he was unable to give a coherent answer as to whether the next Labour government would borrow more money to boost the economy or borrow less.

Ironically, a shift of stance on Europe would actually represent one of the less risky options for Ed Miliband. A range of shadow Cabinet figures — as diverse as Ed Balls, Jim Murphy and Jon Cruddas — all back a referendum. At the same time the leading trade unions are rekindling the Left’s historic suspicion of Euro-centralisation.

Labour insiders who back Mr Miliband give a dual rationale for his unwillingness to offer a referendum. Europe mustn’t “be a distraction” from the key issues that will decide the election. And Mr Miliband’s politics must be seen to be based on principle, not opportunism.

Fine. But just what is the issue of high principle that Labour’s leader is standing upon? No one, least of all me, is arguing that he leads a campaign for British exit from the EU. The question is whether to give the British people a say on an issue that Mr Miliband himself concedes is one of vital national interest.

Labour is in a political no-man’s land. It opposes David Cameron’s referendum pledge but claims it is leaving the door open for a similar pledge of its own. To hold a referendum today would, it says, be reckless. But in a couple of years’ time? Labour says: “Get back to us.”

Ed Miliband is not actually positioning Labour as the pro-European party. He’s positioning it as the anti-referendum party.

Dan Hodges is a political commentator and former Labour adviser