I hope Eurosceptics are watching Kiev with embarrassment.
There’s a brilliantly ironic piece in today’s Mail by columnist Dominic Lawson, who has decided that this could be the moment when ‘the tide of history turned against the EU’.
By ‘this’ he means a fringe meeting of Eurosceptics he attended in Sicily last week. But nevermind that. As Lawson puts it:
“It is indeed a long shot and there is nothing more powerful in politics than the status quo; but I left the San Domenico Palace with a sense that it might once again have been the place where history is made,” Lawson writes.
What’s brilliant about the piece is that it should come out on a day when history is actually being made, but perhaps not quite in the way Lawson hoped. For in writing about the ‘tide of history turning against the EU’, he has clearly missed what’s happening in Ukraine, where up to 350,000 people are today protesting in favour of formulating closer ties with the European Union.
That’s right: there is a massive pro-EU demonstration of almost half a million people taking place right now.
The tide of history indeed.
The protesters are marching through Kiev in protest at President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an EU trade deal after coming under pressure from Russian. In response, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets and chants of ‘revolution’ have rung out across a sea of Ukrainian and EU flags.
And yet at the Daily Mail’s offices on Kensington High Street it appears to be business as usual:
Meanwhile in Ukraine…
I hope Eurosceptics are watching Kiev with embarrassment.
17 Responses to “Mail writer goes on anti-EU rant. Meanwhile in Ukraine…”
tangentreality
Firstly, if we conduct more trade outside the EU than in it, particularly on exports, then not being able to sign free trade agreements with those countries is very damaging, because the tariffs that are imposed make our exports look expensive.
Secondly, there is no surety that our economy would shrink if we left the EU. In actual fact, we import far more from the EU than we export. So it’s more in THEIR interest to keep us in than it is in ours.
Thirdly, we may well not leave. In fact, many on the Right want simply a better deal for EU membership – more focus on trade, and less on political interference.
Jake Armistead
I want a better deal in the EU but when you have parties like UKIP pushing the agenda further to the right and further into the realms of leaving that becomes a real threat which isn’t helped by the media. No surprise that UKIP would want us out though with the potential for economic doom, when else do right wing parties prosper? Certainly not in a positive economic climate.
S.r. Williams
The issue in the Ukraine is free trade not signing away their laws and freedoms to the EUSSR.
colonel_hackney
It’s all relative. For Ukraine the EU may be a better bet than Putin. Given history and geography this may make sense. For the UK, the EU (in its presently constituted form) may be not be best. Given history and geography this may also make sense.
Doug Smith
No surprise about this. Their enthusiasm for something they’ve never experienced reminds me of New Labour’s enthusiasm for war.
Once they’re in it only the few who are likely to benefit remain enthusiastic.