This clip from 2008 shows Cameron and Osborne smirking and laughing at the idea of a ‘red card’ for EU legislation, as William Hague mocks such a plan in a withering speech at the despatch box:
“It doesn’t take much of a political analyst to work out that the chances of this mechanism being employed on any regular basis are vanishingly small… You only have to consider this for a moment to begin to laugh about it…”
Eight years later, Dave and George claim unconvincingly that their red card is reason enough to vote to Remain…
David Cameron’s ‘red card‘ means EU legislation can be vetoed if 55% of Member States agree. Good luck with that.
The idea that Britain could simply oppose individual pieces of draft EU legislation, and easily and straightforwardly convince 14 other Member States to vote with us to kill it, is amusingly optimistic. As William Hague said in 2008:
“Given the difficulty of Oppositions winning a vote in their Parliaments, the odds against doing so in 14 countries around Europe with different parliamentary recesses… are such that even if the European Commission proposed the slaughter of the first-born it would be difficult to achieve such a remarkable conjunction of parliamentary votes”
And Hague is campaigning to Remain…
William Hague on Leading the Opposition…
“The Leader of the Opposition has to look as if he can work with President Obama and stand up to President Putin, or, in this particular and extraordinary case, vice versa.”
William Hague on Tony Blair…
“To the political law that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time he added Blair’s law – that you can make a very serious attempt at it.”
Chuka arrives for Andrew Marr with girlfriend he has kept out of public eye http://t.co/IKtxTI68mC @TotalPolitics pic.twitter.com/HGPRHZGCJg
— David Singleton (@singersz) May 10, 2015
Where have we seen this before?
But is Chuka ready? Like Hague, is he going for it too early? 5 years as opposition leader is a very long time…
As Guido reports in the Sun today, Umunna has plenty of options available, with some allies urging him to run for Mayor of London rather than leader. From City Hall he can build a power-base, gain executive experience and sweep back as leader after the referendum. Or will his vanity and ambition for the top job blind him to the long game?
How can a man with such obvious contempt for one side of the House remain impartial?
