Conservatives Wedded To EU Membership

The Open Europe press release for today reports on the statement by Mark Francois, Conservative Shadow Europe Minister, that the next Conservative government would be willing to increase Britain's contributions to the European Union in return for reforms to European farming subsidies.

Digressing slightly in that it is a tad unfortunate appointing as Europe Minister, someone with a French variant of the name Francis - this statement only drives home the point that the Conservatives have no real agenda for distancing Britain from the European Union. It also magnifies the glaring faults in Conservative thinking and policy, whereby the party is promising a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - assuming it has not been ratified by the time of the next General election - a promise which, incidentally, they know they will not have to honour, whilst at the same time saying that they are happy to provide even more funds for the 'European Project'.

How, at a time of recession when the Conservative party are talking about taking hard decisions in order to negate Labour's wasteful spending, they can justify such a policy beggars belief. Presumably this policy will be in their election manifesto - not!

The more one considers the 'outpourings' of the Leader of the Conservative's and their Shadow Ministers, the more the first the letters of the word 'Conservative' appears to gain credibility!