THE STRUGGLE:

Eurosceptics Rising (Scott Norvell, 06/15/2004, Tech Central Station)

In Poland, which only just joined the EU six weeks ago, the anti crowd found a hero in the face of former pig farmer Andrzej Lepper of the Self-Defense party. Together with the conservative League of Polish Families, eurosceptic parties in Poland took 29 percent of the ballot. In the Netherlands, Paul van Buitenen, who made a name for himself as a whistle-blower against EU corruption, won two seats for the Transparent Europe party, and in Austria, ex-journalist Hans Peter Martin, who exposed the expense-account shenanigans of MEPs, won a surprise two seats.

But the poster-child for this new movement is surely the silver-haired Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former BBC talk show host who was run out of town after referring to Muslims as "suicide bombers, limb amputators" and "women repressors" in a newspaper column.

Kilroy and his ilk in the U.K. Independence Party took nearly 17% of the vote in Britain and will become the dominant Eurosceptic party in the continent-wide assembly when it meets for the first time in July.

When asked at a post-election press conference what he was going to do when he went to the European Parliament, Kilroy replied with typical aplomb that he was going to wreck it. "Expose it for the waste, the corruption and the way it is eroding our independence and our sovereignty," he added. "Our job is to go there and turn round and say, 'This is what they do. This is how they waste your money. This is how they all go on the gravy train and spend their time in restaurants and all the rest of it'."

You can see emerging here the European disease, which makes it impossible to assimilate immigrants and unlikely they'll ever unify: there's no such thing as patriotism, only nationalism.

MORE:
Can This Man Beat Blair?: Have the elections helped Michael Howard in his quest to unseat Tony Blair? (J.F.O. MCALLISTER, Jun. 13, 2004, TIME)

A distinguished lawyer with a precise manner and a long public career, including four years as John Major's hard-line Home Secretary, Howard is not a natural pick for young, multicultural Britons or those who want sweeping change. Frustration with politics as usual was a big factor in the protest vote that flowed to UKIP, which ran a brilliant insurgent campaign centered on the charismatic, perma-tanned Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former Labour M.P. who hosted a TV talk show for 17 years until he had to give it up in January after calling Islam a religion of "limb amputators." No one expects UKIP to make much of a dent in the general election, expected next spring, but the problem for Tories is UKIP's hypnotic effect on much of its own right wing. Howard is trying to position his party as responsibly Euro-skeptic, saying Britain should stay inside the E.U. but work to reform it. This is smart territory to inhabit. A majority of British voters oppose joining the euro and the European constitution — but they still want to stay in the E.U.

The problem is that 57% of Tories don't, and for many it's a crucial issue, so that a more moderate stance threatens internal schisms. During the campaign, Howard appeared rattled by the UKIP threat. He repeatedly inched toward them, saying he wanted Britain to regain control over social policy now given to Brussels, and finally stating he would unilaterally pull Britain out of the common fisheries policy if he couldn't negotiate changes — which could imply a messy breach with the E.U., since treaty revisions would require almost inconceivable unanimous consent from 25 member states. His best hope for not getting drawn deeper into the Euro-wrangling is the constitution: though it confers more power on Brussels, Blair will give it provisional consent this week, thus providing a handy enemy around which Howard's whole party can unite. [...]

Howard plans to launch a raft of kinder, gentler new policies in the next few months. "We have to convince people we can make things better," he says simply. But there's no sign yet of any Big Idea emerging to engage voters. Patrick Seyd, co-author of a book on the Tory party, says it still hasn't recovered from Thatcherism, when it became more starkly ideological. The great issues that animated Conservatives then — excess union power and communism — have disappeared, with nothing much to replace them. "The conservatives' lust for power is beginning to re-emerge, which is crucial to internal discipline," he says. "But Thatcherism doesn't provide a guide to the 21st century. And they haven't managed to find the answer on Europe or on the role of the state."

You have to be of the Stupid Party to not be able to figure out the big issue.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 17, 2004 8:00 AM