BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today

Subject: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Cllr
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 12:27 PM

In a speech, Lord Tebbit, who was in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet in the 1980s, says the creation of a new "west European republic" is inevitable after some of the chaotic reactions to the credit crunch.

Lord Tebbit is speaking at a dinner tonight to mark the 20th anniversary of Lady Thatcher's speech in Bruges when she criticised the encroaching interference from the European Union.

The differing responses of whether to guarantee all savers' deposits in crisis-hit banks at the height of the crisis exposed a "fault" among the 15 countries who have adopted the euro currency as part of the third stage of European and Monetary Union.

He will tell an audience which is expected to include Baroness Thatcher: "When the chips went down, the EMU states acted each in its own national interest regardless of their mutual obligation.

"In short the euro was exposed as a single currency with 15 Chancellors of the Exchequer and 15 Treasuries.

"In the long run there can only be one Chancellor, one Treasury, one tax system, one economic policy for any one currency – and that means one Government and one state."

But not every member country will want "to have their 1707 moment to create a union like that of the United Kingdom", he says.

Some European Union countries like Britain will want to stay out of the new super-state – but still be bound by agreements within a looser EU structure.

He says: "We can see the possibility of a new European community of sovereign independent states co-operating willingly together. Most would be existing nation states – but one would be the West European Republic."

Lord Tebbit says he was encouraged by comments from Giscard D'Estang, former French President and architect of the European Constitution, several weeks ago: "If countries such as Britain do not want to move to the next stage, we should be prepared to agree with them a special status that would preserve close ties but avoid them acting as a brake on the progress of others."

Lord Tebbit urges Tory leader David Cameron to start to "think about the architecture of such a Bruges-style Europe" which he describes as "a truly European compromise", and have a referendum on it within two years of a new Conservative Government.

He says: "We cannot drift on as we have been. It is not fair either to the British people nor to the European Union.

"We need to show Thatcherite courage and determination to lead the country along that path."

Lord Tebbit's speech marks the anniversary of Lady Thatcher's speech in 1988 when she told the College of Europe in Bruges: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels."

Im looking forward to the dinner tonight, anyother mudcatters going?
Cllr

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 12:35 PM

If you've a spare ticket?

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 12:36 PM

Is it white tie?

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Cllr
Date: 27 Oct 08 - 11:52 PM

cheers dude I was tempted to start a thread saying mudcatter meets Maggie thatcher but it's so obviously troll bait no one would fall for it...

hang on hmmmm...

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 05:07 AM

"In the long run there can only be one Chancellor, one Treasury, one tax system, one economic policy for any one currency – and that means one Government and one state."

"One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them..."


Anyone else see the similarity?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 06:13 AM

"But not every member country will want "to have their 1707 moment to create a union like that of the United Kingdom", he says."

WANT ????????????????????????

Don't think it was quite as unanimous as the culturally blind politicos like to think!
Still, it's always been the way of the political classes to ignore those bits of history which don't fit their doctrine.
I think a certain Chairman Mao called it 'Revisionism'
Ask Margo MacDonald what she thinks of the Chingford Skinhead's comment ;)

XG

Subject: RE: BS: Bruge speech 20 yrs today
From: Cllr
Date: 28 Oct 08 - 06:23 AM

LTS brilliant comment ( as usual)