A special relationship between the EU and UK

A fascianting article by Melanie Phillips revealing that "A remarkable intervention by the very architect of the constitution himself, the former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, has come my way. Interviewed in the French weekly Le Point on July 5 2007 about the revived constitution, Giscard said there was now a serious problem with the British for whom European integration appeared as 'an obstacle, a brake, a source of complications.'... What Giscard appeared to be suggesting here was precisely the kind of relationship with Europe — economic, co-operative but not integrated — that the vast majority of the British people would undoubtedly want, if given the choice. And it wasn’t the first time he’d done so, having said something similar in an interview with the French radio channel France Inter on June 27 2007. From Giscard, then, of all people, comes the idea that Britain can have precisely what it wants in Europe — a unique relationship befitting the UK’s unique position as the bloody-minded offshore island that stubbornly wants to remain in charge of its own affairs. Giscard of course has long moved on; but since he is so much the spirit of the EU — the grandest possible of fromages — his suggestion is electrifying.

So there you are, William and David — Giscard has handed it to you on a plate. What are you waiting for? Or to put it another way, how come a former French president is suggesting something that's in the fundamental interests of the UK but for which British politicians are too afraid to ask?"


Read the rest and start lobbying the Conservatives, this could be the answer we want.