Letters to the Editor | 15 July 2006

Tories must leave the EPP

From Douglas Carswell MP
Sir: Fraser Nelson should ask himself why Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest of Old Europe’s political elite are so desperate to keep the Conservatives in the EPP (Politics, 8 July). It is precisely because they recognise the importance of maintaining their ideological monopoly. Once we Tories, with our free-market allies on the Continent, start arguing for a different kind of Europe, the Euro-elites’ cartel will be broken, and deeper integration will no longer look inevitable.

Those pre-Cameroonian Conservatives lobbying David to shelve his promise need to understand what is at stake. Leaving the EPP is one of the very few commitments that he is in a position to deliver now. If the plan were postponed, Cameron would have reneged on the one promise that he might have kept in opposition. The Labour-supporting commentators who are now arguing that he should drop the whole idea would doubtless be the first, come the general election, to say, ‘You can’t believe a word the Tories say.