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		Out of touch in the Brussels bubble November 12 2004 Ex-Conservative MEP Tom Spencer is a columnist for EU Reporter, and he has a good line in invective. In the issue of October 11/22, he wrote about my "sheer strangeness", having seen my acceptance speech on Sky TV following the June euro-elections. Those who have followed Mr. Spencer's career closely might like to remind him that when it comes to sheer strangeness, perhaps people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones. Spencer's post with the University of Sussex seems to be funded by the EU, so perhaps he should declare an interest. There has been a tendency in most political parties for those offering themselves as euro-candidates to be people who are interested in the European project, and enthusiastic about it. Certainly the British Conservative delegation in 1994/99, when Spencer was a member, fitted this mould. They were a million miles away from the views of ordinary party members - so much so that several of them left the party in 1999, unable to campaign on a Conservative manifesto. Wrapped up in the Brussels bubble, and still locked in the Brussels mind-set, Spencer simply doesn't understand the views of Conservatives, or of the British people. He is wholly mistaken about attitudes to Europe amongst both groups. He believes that the great majority of Conservatives are just like him - moderate, reasonable pro-Europeans. He thinks that the odd euro-sceptic in the party - myself, Bill Cash, John Redwood - are eccentric aberrations. The truth is just the opposite. In fact the party has an aging handful of Europhiles, famously described by my colleague Theresa Villiers MEP as "Yesterday's men with yesterday's policies". They include Clarke, Heseltine, Curry, Taylor. In Brussels, I am proud to be part of a beleaguered minority. But back in the UK, at Conservative meetings or in the pub, I am right in the mainstream of opinion on Europe. Almost no one ever asks me to be more positive about the EU. But at almost every Conservative meeting, an activist will accost me and ask "How long must we keep up this pretence of re-negotiation? When are we going to do the sensible thing and get out?". Millions of Conservatives, including activists and councillors, voted for the UK Independence Party last June. Not because they think UKIP is a serious player, but because "They wanted to give the party leadership a message on Europe". How do I know? Because dozens of them have told me so. Do I have anything more than anecdotal evidence to go on? Yes. Back in 1998, William Hague organised an internal Party referendum on the euro. On a high turnout, 85% of respondents voted to keep the Pound. In our East Midlands selection process in 2003, there was a determined attempt to unseat me for my sceptic views. I know this because a number of members voted me at the bottom of their lists, and there is no plausible reason to do this with a hard-working incumbent, unless you oppose his policies. Their initiative was a failure, and a huge rebuff to the Spencer-tendency. Some eight percent voted me bottom of the list. Over half voted me #1, and I topped the list overall. So I'd accept 8% as a reasonable estimate of pro-EU feeling in the Party. A Times poll just ahead of the election had more than half of intending Conservative voters (not just members) in favour of leaving the EU altogether. Spencer is quite right that this is the Party of Euro-quislings like Heath, and that Conservative governments ratified most of the treaties, including the infamous Maastricht Treaty. It is also true that Prime Minister Tony Blair first stood for election on a personal manifesto calling for EU withdrawal. That doesn't make the Labour government eurosceptic. And Ted Heath doesn't make the Tories euro-phile. Spencer's other huge misconception is that all decent people think the EU is a good thing, or in the oft-repeated phrase "the benefits of membership are self-evident". No they're not. A recent paper by the think-tank Civitas pulled together a series of estimates, from prestigious commentators, on the UK's net cost of EU membership, and it came out to 4% of GDP - an enormous drag on growth and prosperity. Wim Kok, in his progress report on the Lisbon Agenda, finds that almost nothing has been achieved in five years, and the 2010 targets are unattainable. Anyone who, like me, has sat in the EU Parliament's Unemployment Committee for the last five years will know that actually we have slipped back, we have passed measures that make labour markets less flexible, and reduce our ability to compete in the global market-place. A recent report from the German Bundesbank (Oct 2003) can find no benefits to German industry from the Single Market. The euro is failing, as 4½ million unemployed Germans can testify. Meantime the EU Commission finds that seven euro-zone countries face unsustainable demand pressures, because the euro interest rate is too low for their economies. The Iraq war showed that a Common Foreign Policy is a chimera. Separate EU defence structures, coupled with endemic anti-Americanism in some member-states, threaten the Atlantic Alliance and call our security into question. The EU is undermining democracy in member states, as voters catch on to the fact that decisions are made by remote bureaucrats, and that their votes make little difference. Turnout in euro-elections keeps trending downwards The debate over Turkish accession crystallises the problem. No one can establish the right criteria for the issue, because no one really knows what Europe is supposed to mean, or what the EU is for. British Conservatives, and most of the British people, want a Europe based solely on free trade and voluntary co-operation. This is more or less the Common Market we thought we were voting for in 1975. Spencer would say that this amounts to leaving the EU. But frankly I don't care what we call it - variable geometry, associate membership, withdrawal - so long as we have it. As I said in my acceptance speech that prompted Spencer's criticism, "We have had enough of the European project. We want our country back. And we will have it".