The Flat-Earth Wing Is a Drag on the Tories

The Natural History Museum on London’s Brompton Road contains many stuffed curiosities, including that of Tyrannosaurus Rex. If they are not careful, British conservatives will install the carcass of their own party alongside these extinct colossi of the Jurassic age. Ironically, American conservatives are aiding and abetting their transatlantic colleagues’ bid for oblivion.

Last month’s election of William Hague, the 36-year-old protege of Margaret Thatcher, as the new Tory leader illustrates the point. In rejecting former Economics Minister Kenneth Clarke, the Conservative Party has shown that it is now dominated by those who think the main events in European history are the battles of Agincourt, Trafalgar and Waterloo--all of them English victories over the French.

For such people, France has come to symbolize everything that is, in Thatcher’s words, “quintessentially un-English” about the European Union. For them, the specific content of British foreign policy is less important than saying no to supposedly French-inspired ideas for EU development, no to the European Monetary Union, no to the Social Chapter governing labor laws, no to the “F-word.” (Nothing naughty here; “F” stands for “federal”.)

This approach goes under the name “Euro-skepticism.” Under this label, it has become respectable for British conservatives to abandon constructive thought about Britain’s EU role. Indeed, it has become a badge of intelligence to assert that British conservatives are safeguarding the sensible, moderate values of the 1688 Glorious Revolution against the centralizing conspiracies of Jacobin intellectuals across the channel.

In applauding these fantasies, American rightists such as George Will do their British counterparts no favors. In effect, they are encouraging them not just to be judiciously suspicious of the EU, but to flirt with Euro-rejectionism.

Suspicion about EU institutions enjoys an honorable place in British attitudes toward Europe. It implies that, while the British are unenthusiastic about things European, they know that for broad reasons of national welfare, there is no alternative to making the best of EU membership. With this approach, the British tend to be at the end of the EU convoy rather than in the lead. Nonetheless, some useful advances have resulted. The British insistence on budgetary rectitude, for instance, has reined in EU extravagance.

Euro-rejectionism, however, is a dangerous animal. It implies that Britain enjoys an alternative for its international alignment. This is the stuff of dreams. Those who saw Thatcher stiffen with pride whenever Old Glory was unfurled know that she would probably have jumped at some form of shared sovereignty with what she called “the new Europe across the Atlantic.” Of course, this alternative never was and never will be available.

Euro-rejectionism also brings the Conservatives into conflict with public opinion. The 1975 referendum on continued British membership in the European Community returned a solid two-thirds majority in favor. Today, the numbers have narrowed. But most polls show support for outright British withdrawal from Europe at under 20%. In the May general election, the anti-EU Referendum Party, despite being well-funded by billionaire James Goldsmith, turned in a risible performance.

The present Conservative negativism toward Europe is, therefore, untenable. It offers no connection to the EU’s continuing solid progress, most recently in evidence at the EU summit in Amsterdam. There, the enduring strength of the Franco-German partnership was reaffirmed, thus ensuring that European Monetary Union will take place on schedule in 1999.

Continued unthinking negativism by the Conservatives, especially with its unpleasant undertones of Anglo-Saxon chauvinism, will turn them into a fringe party. That would not be a welcome development to U.S. conservatism. Recent elections in Britain and France have brought left-of-center parties to power. Their socialist predisposition toward government meddling in the market was on display at the Denver G-8 summit, with the British announcing that government-sponsored job creation schemes will be the key theme in next year’s summit.

In Britain, Hague has inherited an unelectable party, many of whose members exhibit a strong death wish. Transforming this party will be a difficult but not impossible task. Five years ago, Tony Blair faced a similar situation and triumphed by purging the Labor Party of its extremists. Hague must do the same with his Euro-rejectionists. American conservatives need to help him in this endeavor. This means encouraging their British friends to make the best of the EU, warts and all.