Second, it looks very much as though the Spanish are cheating.Besides, it is
Second, it looks very much as though the Spanish are cheating.Besides, it is difficult asp not to feel some respect for Canada If only we conf could do the same. We, too, asp have off our shores a large chunk of asp continental shelf, the richest form of fishing waters. conf If only we could confrances control these waters so that our own fishing confrances conf industry could benefit, instead of allowing countries which have not traditionally fished there to confrances conf come in because their own waters have been fished out. Not only would our own industry benefit in the short-term; we would be asp better able to conserve stocks for the future.To confrances asp put the argument in those terms may not be wholly fair, but it is how many people will feel. And conf the figures partly bear out the Eurosceptic case that exports to new confrances markets are becoming progressively more important.
Throughout the Eighties, our exports to the EC as a proportion of the total rose - from 46 per cent in 1980 to 57 per cent in 1991. Hardly anyone would follow Lamont the whole way towards quitting the Union. He is Bad Norman, Sulky Norman, Norman-not-to-be-spoken-of-in-respectable- households. And yet, just at the moment of his political eclipse, Norman's speeches suggesting that Britain can cold-shoulder the EU for sound economic reasons and pursue a new nationalism, are echoing and reverberating through many members of the Tory administration he scorns Funny game, politics.
They are afire with the heady romanticism of Britain returning to being a small, fit, globe-trotting trader, escaping the constricting embrace of European federalism. All political movements are grounded in poetic fantasy, and that of the Tory nationalists is suffused with images of Elizabethan England - Drake's drum, cheeky privateers, merchant adventurers in brine-stained furs.This vision has been expressed with the greatest clarity by Jonathan Aitken, the Chief Secretary. But it has also, most colourfully, captured the heart of Norman Lamont, who has been putting considerable energy into selling it Now we all know what we must think of Norman these days. And it has the further advantage of being rather more soundly based than much governmental boasting - economically, the country is in better shape than for many years.For Tory Eurosceptics, though, the policy-shift has stronger echoes still. Outside on the street, the Conservative right are humming victory marches and proclaiming the return of national self-interest as the governing principle of foreign policy. The Government-sponsored "Britain in the World'' conference on 29 March in London is intended to be the moment at which the new emphasis suddenly comes into focus. Opposition politicians will join Douglas Hurd, John Major and many others for a serious think-in about British interests.