Neil Craig I was at an environmentalist huestings at the last election & he pleased everybody else by saying that he opposed economic growth because it allowed the Chines to push up the world price of cement. I was not impressed.
13 December 2005, 13:58:29 GMT – Like – Reply
Andrew Duffin I've met Struan a few times too, and he is certainly a very smooth operator and knows his way around the Brussels system very well indeed.
If he's a sceptic then it is well hidden - but this might just be part of his cunning plan. Let's hope.
13 December 2005, 12:16:22 GMT – Like – Reply
Bill (Scotland) Having met Struan Stevenson on a couple of occasions (once in Strasbourg and the other time near Inverness) I very much doubt that he is not a Eurospeptic; I am genuinely not a Eurosceptic and believe me his thoughts on this subject are quite different from mine. However there may be some truth in the central premise that it is necessary to portray oneself as extremely eurosceptic in order to appeal to the average Tory member in Scotland. Personally I don't doubt his eurosceptic credentials, but it is my feeling that in order to have a chance of progressing one's ideas thru the EU maze it is necessary to form strategic alliances and equally obvious that however nebulous the NI group is or is not it would be quite outrageous for the Conservative MEPs to switch one group of alliances (even if unacceptable because of their federalist agenda) and to have any association with the likes of Le Pen. Of course being NI does not mean this would happen, but certainly his wheeler-dealer style would be cramped were the current alliance not to be replaced by a valid alternative.
All this is really saying that the agenda behind that Herald article seems to me to be quite other than what it purports to be about - but don't ask me what it IS about because I am not clear on that myself any more than I am clear on precisely what Cameron's aim is in insisting on withdrawal from the EPP. What is his strategy? Does he in fact wish to seemingly 'triangulate' toward the views of UKIP supporters to get them back on the Conservative wagon, even if he does not in fact wish to take the UK out of the EU completely (or does he?) - is that his underlying agenda?
If this makes it sound as if I have no idea what is really going on with this issue so far as Conservatives are concerned, you would be right.
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Neil Craig
I was at an environmentalist huestings at the last election & he pleased everybody else by saying that he opposed economic growth because it allowed the Chines to push up the world price of cement. I was not impressed.
13 December 2005, 13:58:29 GMT
– Like – Reply
Andrew Duffin
I've met Struan a few times too, and he is certainly a very smooth operator and knows his way around the Brussels system very well indeed.
If he's a sceptic then it is well hidden - but this might just be part of his cunning plan. Let's hope.
13 December 2005, 12:16:22 GMT
– Like – Reply
Bill (Scotland)
Having met Struan Stevenson on a couple of occasions (once in Strasbourg and the other time near Inverness) I very much doubt that he is not a Eurospeptic; I am genuinely not a Eurosceptic and believe me his thoughts on this subject are quite different from mine. However there may be some truth in the central premise that it is necessary to portray oneself as extremely eurosceptic in order to appeal to the average Tory member in Scotland. Personally I don't doubt his eurosceptic credentials, but it is my feeling that in order to have a chance of progressing one's ideas thru the EU maze it is necessary to form strategic alliances and equally obvious that however nebulous the NI group is or is not it would be quite outrageous for the Conservative MEPs to switch one group of alliances (even if unacceptable because of their federalist agenda) and to have any association with the likes of Le Pen. Of course being NI does not mean this would happen, but certainly his wheeler-dealer style would be cramped were the current alliance not to be replaced by a valid alternative.
All this is really saying that the agenda behind that Herald article seems to me to be quite other than what it purports to be about - but don't ask me what it IS about because I am not clear on that myself any more than I am clear on precisely what Cameron's aim is in insisting on withdrawal from the EPP. What is his strategy? Does he in fact wish to seemingly 'triangulate' toward the views of UKIP supporters to get them back on the Conservative wagon, even if he does not in fact wish to take the UK out of the EU completely (or does he?) - is that his underlying agenda?
If this makes it sound as if I have no idea what is really going on with this issue so far as Conservatives are concerned, you would be right.
12 December 2005, 22:41:49 GMT
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