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The ‘E’ Word

If there’s one word which the Conservative Party would like to ban ahead of the forthcoming General Election (and indeed, before any General Election) it would be the ‘E’ word.

Europe.

Nothing is likely to make a Tory candidate squirm uncomfortably than being questioned about their attitude towards links with Europe.  Often there is a party line, and individual candidate line, and a giant Maginot line between the two.

Chris Bryant, the Europe minister, claimed this week that David Cameron had “failed to change the DNA” of his party and that his MPs were “still the same old Europhobic, dogma-driven obsessives that they have always been”.

William Hague, of course, famously ran his 2001 campaign around ‘saving the pound’ which, rather than making him appear a patriotic defender of Britain’s interests, just made him look like the worst superhero ever created.

Whilst Europe is unlikely to be a huge Election issue this time around, Labour can clearly gain political mileage by highlighting the Tories’ divisions on Europe.  The fact that the ‘e’ word won’t be a big issue also won’t help the UK Independence Party.  Indeed, it is 10/1 that UKIP secure more than 1.5million votes and even longer odds than Nigel Farage manages to find an expression that doesn’t make him look like a smug, unctuous berk before polling day.

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