When David Cameron in 2009 took the Tories out of the main centre-right EPP alliance in the European Parliament to join the smaller and eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, the decision was branded as dotty by some in his own party who said it would put the Conservatives in the company of far-right and racist groups and relegate the party to the fringes of European politics.
When David Cameron in 2009 took the Tories out of the main centre-right EPP alliance in the European Parliament to join the smaller and eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, the decision was branded as dotty by some in his own party who said it would put the Conservatives in the company of far-right and racist groups and relegate the party to the fringes of European politics.
Just over a year after taking up his seat, Scotland's only Conservative MEP Ian Duncan told Agenda that, while he initially had nursed misgivings about the move, he was now convinced that the party's affiliation to a smaller political group allowed him to represent Scotland's key business interests more effectively than if the Tories had remained part of the federalist EPP group.
"When fisheries or financial services are discussed in the other political groupings important decisions are taken behind closed doors and often without a Scot or Brit in the room but that is not the case with the smaller ECR group. What was an unusual strategy has borne fruit."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article