In The Press
Letter in the Daily Telegraph - Cash for scrutiny
15 July 2010
SIR – The chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee is likely to be chosen this week or next. Bill Cash, an ideologically Eurosceptic Conservative MP, has been nominated. The committee sifts through documents that emanate from the EU on behalf of the Commons and is one of our most important select committees, and one with particular visibility in Europe.
The anti-European hyperbole of Bill Cash is well known in the Commons. In January, Hansard reported that he believes that the “lethal” extension of co-decision by the Lisbon Treaty, whereby governments and the European Parliament agree EU laws, “is no less of an issue than when we had to resist invasions of another kind that threatened to undermine our sovereignty and our nationhood in the dark days of the 1930s and 1940s”.
In a debate in June, he recounted how when asked by Margaret Thatcher what he felt about Europe, he said that he “thought that her task was more difficult than Churchill’s”, because “he was faced with bombs and aircraft. You [Margaret Thatcher] are faced with pieces of paper.”
Britain and Europe need serious and credible leadership now more than ever. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the Europe Minister have all shown a commitment to pragmatism and engagement in EU politics. This has had a positive effect in the boardrooms of Britain and chanceries on the continent.
The incoming members of the European Scrutiny Committee may want to ask themselves this – how credible would that committee be with Bill Cash at its helm?
Roland Rudd
Chairman, Business for New Europe
London EC2