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European Affairs

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, as it is about time that Europe stopped looking inward. It should stop talking about itself, and start looking outward. It is time that it realised that it faces huge global challenges—I shall come on to that in a minute. We negotiated an opt-out from the working time directive which allows people to work more than 48 hours a week, but the EU wants to take that away from us, lumbering us with a 35-hour working week. They want to impose more employment and social costs on employers, but there is a danger that that will drive yet more jobs to China and India. I sincerely believe that every time our equivalents in China and India troop into their Parliament they look at a picture of Brussels on the wall and say, ““Keep up the good work, guys. Thanks very much—we’ll have more of your jobs. Keep piling on the legislation.”” The UK should be far more aggressive in pursuing its own national interests. The time for tummy tickling is at an end. Too often, we go to Europe and make grand statements about how we will take on the gnomes of Europe, or whatever they are called. However, we roll over, they tickle our tummy, and we wag our tail. Once again, we get absolutely stuffed. While we are having our tummy tickled they steal our Pedigree Chum from under our noses. We are one of the largest contributors to the EU, so there is no harm in going to Europe and telling them that we do not like that, and that we are not going to do it. They will huff and puff, flap their arms and get into a frightful lather, but they cannot turn their back on one of their largest contributors. I do not wish to be churlish, as the UK has been successful in the past 20 years. The previous Prime Minister, John Major, and the present Prime Minister have done an excellent job of keeping us out of the dreadful single currency. Having stayed out of the euro, we are on the verge of becoming the pre-eminent global financial centre. Frankfurt and Paris have fizzled out—they do not pose a challenge to us, as they do not offer London any competition, provided that we stay out of the single currency. We have even begun to surpass New York. In fact, 30 per cent. of Europe’s largest companies have their headquarters in the UK. That is a good start, but we need to do even more. Instead of ceding even more power to Brussels, we should start to take power back. It will be a great upset for the Government, but sooner or later the UK will elect a right-of-centre Government by voting Conservative. However, we could be constrained in our delivery of right-of-centre policies by European workplace and social legislation which, unless we are careful, will trigger a constitutional crisis in this country and a loss of confidence. As I said, the European Union spends far too much time talking about itself and to itself. In my constituency we recently had a delegation of professors visiting one of our secondary schools to see how we manage education in this country. They were not from Spain or from France. They were from China. Fantastic! My secondary school, John Warner school, is to offer Mandarin from next year. If my secondary school can recognise the opportunities that reside in China, so must we and, more importantly, so must our European Union partners, or they will be left behind. I shall give an example of the unintended—perhaps they were intended—consequences of European regulations. I recently met the chief executive of one of my local hospitals. I asked why the hospital’s performance had not improved. I said, ““You’ve had huge amounts of additional money. Where is it all going?”” She replied, ““Well, we have to pay our doctors 30 per cent. more and, because of the working time regulations, they are working 30 per cent. fewer hours. How can I increase productivity on that basis?”” That is what Europe does not understand. People can be paid more and work more, they can be paid less and work less, but they cannot be paid more and work less. That just does not add up. We have been getting away with it for the past 40 or 50 years, but the hard-working people in China, India and other emerging economies will not let us get away with it in the future. Clearly, I am causing great distress to the Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, who has left her place, but the situation that I am describing is the reality, which the hon. Lady’s Chancellor recognises, as in his pre-Budget report he spoke a lot about China and India and not a lot about the European Union. Perhaps the message is getting through to him as well. In conclusion, I have greatly enjoyed contributing to the debate. We have an opportunity to forge a new relationship both with our European partners and with the emerging economies of India and China. It would be to our detriment and loss if we did not take advantage of that opportunity, because it comes once in a generation. If we miss it, it is gone. I was a little premature in my winding up. I conclude with one of the greatest scandals—the common agricultural policy. France is an extremely nice place. I love going to France, I love French people, I love their wine and their culture. I love the fact that they are extremely difficult, and I like that. France is a nice place because the European Union, through the common agricultural policy, is supporting a totally inefficient agricultural sector. We are funding France’s lifestyle. That may bring a smile to some people’s faces, but it does not bring a smile to farmers in developing third world countries, whose products are priced out of European markets while we dump our subsidised products on their markets. It is unbelievable that we could all hop on a plane to Nigeria tomorrow and find tinned European tomatoes there. Nigeria does not produce any, because it is not financially viable to do so. That is a scandal. Great concern has been expressed about enlargement and the problems of Polish immigration to the UK, but I congratulate our new European partners on being expansive in their outlook. They have escaped the yoke of communism. They do not want to go back to regressive top-down regulatory pressures. They want to take advantage of the commercial opportunities out there. We should follow their lead. It is a sadness that at a time when our new European partners are looking outwards, the Government—this is just a mild criticism—are tending to favour the more regulatory approach followed by some of our old European partners. We want a successful economy. We want high levels of employment. We want substantial wealth creation. As currently structured, the EU is a barrier to that, not a promoter of that aspiration.