Brown, Cameron and Clegg clash over Europe
David Cameron came to Bristol to insist that too many powers have gone from Westminster to Brussels. His two opponents, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, were determined to portray the Conservatives as isolated in Europe and allied with "extremists".
David Cameron's opening pitch was that some powers had to be brought back from Brussels. "I want to be in Europe but not run by it," he said. Early on he tried to deflect the criticism that the Tories would be isolated in Europe. He described it as "nonsense". French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he reminded the audience, stood up for their countries.
Nick Clegg had worked in Brussels and tried to make a virtue of it. He accepted, however, that the EU was "not perfect". He conceded it was a club that had spent 15 years defining chocolate. His defence of the EU was that it could do a lot of things "we can't do on our own". He cited international crime and climate change. "The problems," he said, "don't stop at the cliffs of Dover."
Gordon Brown's central defence of the EU was jobs. He said that three million jobs depended on membership of the EU; 750,000 businesses needed Europe's marketplace. Time and again he accused the Tories of being isolated. "Let us never again be an empty chair on Europe," he said.
David Cameron said that politicians had given away powers without asking the voters first. He reminded the audience that they had been told they would get a referendum. "People feel cheated," he said. The Conservative leader said "we should have had one." He said that in future any new treaty that involved new powers going to Brussels would trigger a referendum.
Nick Clegg said the country benefited from working closely with its European partners.
He cited the case that police authorities had used European legislation to break a paedophile ring. He said that Conservative MEPs and the UK Independence Party had voted against the measures that made it possible.
Labour finds itself in the position that the two other parties are offering referendums. The Liberal Democrats want to ask the British people whether they want to be in or out of Europe. The Tories will hold a referendum on any new treaty that transfers powers to Brussels.
Gordon Brown's argument was that all of this was a distraction from jobs and the economy. As regards repatriating powers, he said all the much-needed economic measures would be postponed while the EU debated what the Tories were asking. Economic recovery depended on Britain's relationship with France and Germany, he said.
And then the Labour leader went after the Tories' allies in the European Parliament.
They have set up their own grouping drawn from some Eastern European parties and have broken with the European People's Party, which represents some of the major centre-right parties. Gordon Brown said to David Cameron "you have walked away from Sarkozy and gone in with right-wing extremists".
Nick Clegg quickly picked up the same cudgel and accused the Conservatives of getting together with a "bunch of nutters who deny climate change and homophobes".
Most observers expected that David Cameron would make membership of the euro, the single currency, an issue. With Greece struggling to service its debts, the euro is facing its severest test. It is the ambition of the Liberal Democrats to join the euro at some stage in the future, having put it first to the British people. The euro did not feature.
The debate came down to this: the Conservatives will resist any new powers going to Brussels. The differences between Labour and the Liberal Democrats over Europe are slight. They believe the EU delivers a string of benefits in dealing with common problems.
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.