That really showed me

Britain has a Minister for Europe, Chris Bryant MP . 

I’m delighted to have been singled out by him in a speech he made yesterday to lefty organisation Progress.

Chris attacks me for wanting to give the people an in / out EU referendum. 

Yes, Chris, indeed I do.

Like you, Chris, I stood for election on a manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the European Constitution / Lisbon Treaty. 

Unlike you, I kept my word. 

Chris accuses me of wanting to give the people the final say over our Europe policy - rather than just politicians like him and me.  Yep.  Guilty as charged.   

Posted on 10 March 2010 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

I think Chris should stick to promoting himself in his underpants to a select few and leave the big stuff of government to you Douglas!

Posted on 10 March 2010 17:37 by Richard de Gerber

<sarcasm>
But Douglas, imagine if politicians kept their election promises! It would be a slippery slope. Next the proles would expect the same laws to apply to MPs as ordinary people!

This is clearly too terrible to contemplate.
</sarcasm>

Posted on 10 March 2010 17:54 by Shed Plant

Chicken!

Posted on 10 March 2010 18:48 by best man

Chris Bryant... waste of space in my humble.
Chris Bryant... out of touch with reality in my humble.
Chris Bryant... personifies all that is wrong with British politics.


Douglas Carswell shows us that it doesn't have to be this way.

Posted on 10 March 2010 19:23 by Derek

What extraordinary arrogance from a man who lives off the taxes of those "ordinary people". Unfortunately the man has landed the very safe seat of Rhondda where all the EU-sceptics will turn a blind eye and still vote for him in May.

Posted on 10 March 2010 20:45 by Mike Spilligan

Words cannot describe how much I despise these pseudo-intellectuals who make speeches to insular centre left think tanks who labour under the delusion that what they say matters. Politics has lots its giants. Once upon a time, we had politicians with a hinterland.

Enoch Powell was one of the most distinguished classicists of his day, and his works on Herodotus rank amongst the best on the subject.

Michael Foot was a distinguished literary scholar, and his works on Swift, Hazlitt, Byron etc showed us that he had what Healey called a 'hinterland.'

The parliaments of previous times had giants like Mrs Thatcher, Mr Foot, Mr Powell, Bevan, Healey etc. Parliaments of previous centuries had people like Burke, the Pitts, North etc.

I am glad that Mr Carswell is in parliament because we need more of his type. But with the current state of parliament, his talents would be better utilised elsewhere. Hayek told Fisher to ignore parliament and use the intellectuals and the think tanks. The IEA is one of the most influential think tanks in Britain and the world because of Hayek's advice.

Posted on 10 March 2010 21:36 by Josh

You've just eloquently described why we love you.

Posted on 11 March 2010 00:46 by Steve John Tierney

"Chris accuses me of wanting to give the people the final say over our Europe policy"

What a disgrace! Next thing, those dreadful Tories will be advocating democracy! Then where will the tax system be?

Posted on 11 March 2010 08:49 by Y Rhyfelwr Dewr

The speech says "Douglas Carswell had tabled a private member's bill that would have taken the UK out of the EU"

His Bill was for a referendum - something which all Labour & Lib Dem MP want into the last election making a manifesto promes to support. A Manifesto Promise is the single strongest promise any MP can ever make & both Labour & LibDem broke them .

Chris Bryant has here acknowledged that giving the people a chance to vote on a referendum is certain to lead to us to vote to leave, which presumably explains why his anti-democratic party oppose letting us have the promised choice.

Not that the Cionservatives have behaved much better on their promise. I still do not understand how the official policy of any modern political party can be completely reversed simply on the leader's say so & against the manifest wishes of the great majority of members. No wonder people refuse to join political parties today when members have zero input on what they are working for.

Posted on 11 March 2010 10:50 by Neil Craig

Labour doesn't like asking the people. Perhaps because it hates them all?

Posted on 11 March 2010 14:58 by Roger Pearse

What about DC's cast iron guarantee?

Posted on 11 March 2010 18:30 by Peter Kennedy-Chapman

Why the heck do we need a Minister for Europe ?. Another common purpose politico in a suit.

Posted on 12 March 2010 23:54 by Glenn

Lisbon Treaty is self-ammending therefore Tory promise to take back/limit EU powers is clearly untrue. Why, Douglas are you still a Tory member- don't UKIP or English Democrats appeal?

Posted on 15 March 2010 14:58 by P Turner

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