Why we must veto this alien constitution

The history of the Conservative party as the constitutional party has ensured that the issue of Europe is far more troublesome for us than for our political rivals. It was ever thus.

The early struggles over entry to the Common Market were fierce, although relatively gentlemanly. Dissent rumbled on in opposition and during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, though it was masked by the size of her parliamentary majority and the belief of the anti-Europeans that the prime minister was ‘one of them’. This perception enabled the Single European Act – an integrationist measure that widened majority voting and endorsed the principle of ever closer union – to be passed relatively, but not entirely, painlessly. (I still treasure the memory of Norman Tebbit during late-night divisions berating euro-rebels for their disloyalty to the government: fate must have chuckled at the sight, knowing what was to come.) After the 1992 election victory, the replacement of an older generation of pragmatic Conservatives with an intake of eager, more ideological Members changed the perception of the Maastricht negotiation, and our UK opt-outs, from a triumph hailed with delight in 1991 to – in the eyes of some – an act of near treachery in 1992. Mayhem ensued.

I am a moderate on Europe. I believe that strident and exaggerated anti-European sentiments undermine our relationship with our EU partners and make it more difficult to achieve our policy objectives. I wish Britain to remain in the Union and am unpersuaded that it is serious policy to believe a transatlantic link can replace that membership. However, I do not favour unquestioning acceptance of every European ambition. I share the widespread unease about political integration, although, up to a point, it is inevitable. The question is: where is that point?

For nearly a decade, that question has been dominated by the debate about the euro.