In keeping with other members of her gender, when wishing to dissect the root cause of a problem, Helen Szamuely, Your Freedom and Ours, displays that knack of going straight for the jugular.
"........you cannot have a defence review until you have a serious discussion on foreign policy. What exactly is Britain's foreign policy? Does it have one? Given that we now have a government that, apparently, "doesn't do foreign" and to whom a strategic alliance with China is a perfectly sensible idea because it's a large country in the East, whose economy is growing and, therefore, no different from India.
The real problem is one we all know and understand. Given that membership of the EU means further integration into the institutions of the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) though such a policy in reality cannot exist as there are no common interests, a discussion about British foreign policy has to start with a discussion about the EU and Britain's membership in it. Forget about a referendum. We cannot have one until we have brought out into the open all the implications of our membership and non-membership. And up with that our politicians will not put. So, we might have to do it ourselves, spreading the word as best we can."
Such is the mentality of our political elite that it is hoping too much for them to cogitate on this problem, so as Helen says, we might as well do it ourselves.
As I am in 'quotation mode' today, perhaps this one is apt, albeit paraphrasing Mark Twain:
"Suppose your were an idiot and suppose you were an Member of Parliament.... But I repeat myself."
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