We taught the Bosnian Serb generals that the slaughter of civilians will not go unpunished

“We taught the Bosnian Serb generals that the slaughter of civilians will not go unpunished.” Er, up to a point, and rather late. They both made fervently anti-Brussels points in their speeches, with the Foreign Secretary deriding the notion of “ever closer union” to which the Prime Minister had, after all, committed himself when he signed the Maastricht treaty.As for Portillo … grown newspapermen were slack-jawed and white-faced at the sheer gung-ho relish with which he took on the factual world and defeated it with overwhelming verbal force. Only the indomitable Edwina Currie won’t shut up; she has left it late, but she is in danger of becoming admirable.
Malcolm Rifkind and Michael Portillo were, though, surer guides to the Tory mood.

But most pro-Maastricht and pro-single currency Tories have been intimidated or argued into silence. After John Major’s leadership challenge, the hard-liners aren’t going to push for more concessions from him. Europe has nearly destroyed the Major administration. Could it end up saving it? After a day of speechifying and fringe-meeting agitation on the future of the European Union, the party feels more united than last year, and united on terms summed up in the title of a lunchtime speech by Norman Lamont: “We are all Euro-sceptics now.”

The argument is declared over, at least in the party. We need to shake up the party system, because the parties are not reflecting the divides in our society.”. The strongest was that of Andrew Rowe, the old “wet” MP for Mid Kent. He said the EU needed to be greatly overhauled after 40 years, but added: “I am not scared of pooling our sovereignty in order to make us part of a very successful viable future.”Addressing a meeting organised by Conservative Youth Against a Federal Europe, Sir Teddy accepted Alan Howarth’s view that there were around 40 Tory MPs who would be happier in the Labour Party.”In the same way, there are probably Labour MPs who would be happier on our side, because they are worried about giving up our democracy to the EU.

The best name for the new currency is the dodo,” he said.John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, was one of the few pro-European voices on the fringe. “The Euro-fanatics who are running Europe are making such a mess of it.”The strident calls of last year for a pledge not to join a single currency were replaced by a degree of relish at the difficulties confronting the project.John Redwood, the defeated Tory leadership challenger, said even the German people were terrified of the “monetary monster” and were buying Swiss francs. France, already suffering 12 per cent unemployment, was being asked to suffer more in the name of convergence.”The wags in the foreign exchange markets are right again. It would mean one thing to the House of Commons and another to European institutions.”Lord Tebbit put the Government’s shift down to events in the EU as much as to the arguments of the Euro-sceptics.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that the Conservative Party has shifted decisively in the Euro-sceptic direction,” Mr Lamont said.Sir Teddy Taylor, MP for Southend East and one of the original sceptic voices, said the Government was changing its stance in the right direction – “towards public opinion”.However, there were warnings about the pressure the Government would face from other European Union states at next year’s inter-governmental conference over monetary union and common foreign and defence policies.Mr Lamont urged ministers to resist the temptation to “cobble together” some form of words to cover Britain’s position “We have found to our cost that ambiguity is fatal. The Conservative Party had put its divisions over Europe behind it, Norman Lamont, the former chancellor, said: “We are all Euro-sceptics now.”
Along with Lord Tebbit, he welcomed the Prime Minister’s assurance that if Europe moved towards federalism a Tory Britain would not go with it. Euro-sceptics paraded at conference fringe meetings yesterday in a mood of barely concealed triumph at the way they believe John Major and the Cabinet are marching to the beat of the sceptic drum. After announcing the objective of a new Atlantic community, Mr Rifkind told reporters that while France remained “protectionist”, he had secured significant allies among other member states..

With a Conservative government Britain will not join a single European Army.”But there is little threat of a common defence policy – proposed by Jacques Delors, the past president of the European Commission – being pushed by the French and the Germans for the inter-governmental conference next year.Britain has led pressure for the Western European Union – formed in 1948 – to be the focus for European defence, outside the European Union.Mr Rifkind said any further erosion of sovereignty would be judged on “whether there would be such benefit to the prosperity, to the security, or to the quality of life of the British people”.Labour’s readiness to go along with what the majority of other countries wanted was the “new fault line in British politics”, he said. “It would be absurd, as some of our partners are urging, to try to merge our defence co-operation into the European Community,” he said.Malcolm Rifkind, the Foreign Secretary, who also adopted a Euro-sceptical tone in the foreign affairs debate, promoted closer co-operation on defence with European partners, particularly the French, when he was defence secretary.Mr Portillo declared: “There are those in the Labour Party and across Europe sleepwalking their way along the dreamy road to a European superstate We will not allow Brussels to control our defence policy. He said the Tories sent a clear message to the European Court: “Don’t give comfort to terrorists.”His tirade had the hall clapping and stamping its feet for more and eclipsed the appeal of John Redwood, the former right-wing challenger for the leadership There were hisses when Mr Portillo mentioned Brussels. Staking his claim to the future leadership of the party yesterday with a highly Euro-sceptic attack on Britain’s European partners for proposing a common defence policy, the speech produced the longest standing ovation of the day.
Mr Portillo, Secretary of State for Defence, raised the spectre of the European Commission seeking to harmonise or “even metricate” uniforms and cap badges in a European common defence force.He also passionately defended the Special Air Service and lambasted the condemnation by the European Court of Human Rights of the Gibraltar killings. After a survey showed a fall in consumer confidence, rumours circulated in the bond markets that European central banks had intervened on foreign exchanges to support the currency The Bank declined to comment.. Michael Portillo reasserted his claim to be the darling of the Tory right yesterday with a barnstorming address that flew in the face of warnings by the former foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, not to rail against false ogres in Europe.