The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Blair's EU Sellout

Today's Telegraph has a superb editorial on Tony Blair's sellout of the British rebate to the EU and France. Without any gains against the French agricultural subsidy, Blair gave up most of the Thatcher-negotiated rebate that now amounts to about 10 billion pounds annually. As the Telegraph points out, Blair's internationalism has never been based on Britain's interests. Here's the money quote:

"Make no mistake: the sums of money involved are immense - £7 billion, the amount Mr Blair has handed away, is roughly the entire police budget for England and Wales. At the last election, Mr Blair claimed Tory plans for a £4 billion tax reduction would mean savage cuts in public services. Never again will he be able to level such an accusation...From now on, every time they are asked where they would find the money for tax cuts, the Tories can reasonably reply: from Brussels."

Will the new Tory leader, David Cameron, have the courage to oppose Blair directly on his giveaway? If he doesn't, he'll go the way of the last several Tory leaders. If Britain's conservatives want to resume acting like conservatives instead of Labor-lite, this is the best place to start.

Leave a comment

Leave a Comment

N.B. We encourage readers to share and discuss their thoughtful and relevant comments about this Spectator article. Comments are routinely monitored and will be deleted if profane, bigoted, or grossly impolite. Please be respectful. (And don't feed the trolls!) Thank you.

More Blog Posts by Jed Babbin

http://spectator.org/blog/2005/12/19/blairs-eu-sellout

ADVERTISEMENT

SPONSORED LINKS

Special Feature

Better that we become a nation of choosers rather than beggars. Our symposium on choice from the May, 2012 issue:

A Time for Choosing

James Piereson

The Road from Serfdom

Stephen Moore and Peter Ferrara

FLASHBACK TO: 1984

Clip of the Day

Most Popular Articles

Meet the Flukes!

F. H. Buckley | 5.25.12

The Wisconsin Turning Point

Peter Ferrara | 5.23.12

In Search of Muhammad

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | 5.25.12

Age and Kyl

Quin Hillyer | 5.25.12

Follow Me

Jay D. Homnick | 5.25.12

A Test of National Honor

Hal G.P. Colebatch | 5.25.12

How About the Record of DOE Capital?

William Tucker | 5.25.12

The Great Debate

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. | 5.24.12

ADVERTISEMENT