Yesterday (Monday 5 September), Bill Cash has published a pamphlet, “It’s the EU, Stupid” ( It’s the EU Stupid). This has been released on the same day as a European reform debate in Westminster Hall (Grand Committee Room), organised by Bill Cash, between leading Eurorealists and Euro-integrationists – including speakers such as influential economist Tim Congdon, Chairman of Business for New Europe Roland Rudd, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Bernard Jenkin MP and Liberal Democrat European justice and human rights spokeswoman Baroness Ludford MEP.

The pamphlet is a grand summing up of the current Eurorealist position. It states that “the United Kingdom , in its own vital national interests, must take the lead in renegotiating all the European Treaties, combining with other Member States who reject the need for European economic government and fiscal union for the Eurozone. We must return to an EFTA-plus arrangement, so that we regain our democracy and economic stability and, with it, the ability to deliver policies for which the British people have voted or leave the European Union altogether.”

Bill Cash argues that the “remorseless logic” of fiscal union is that it will generate instability for the UK , the EU and the Eurozone. There will be more bailouts. The German conditions will not be complied with. There will be implosion, just as the existing Treaties themselves have not worked.

Eurozone Fiscal union is Alice in Wonderland fantasy: There is an Alice in Wonderland fantasy around that the idea of a fiscal union would be a possible runner or in any rate, a short term fix but unfortunately this judgement overlooks the fact that it is doomed to failure and we would be better off keeping ahead of the curve by avoiding the inevitable implosion and sitting down with those from other Member States or those who are prepared to discuss with us the want to avoid the implosion. Even Edward Heath would not have accepted fiscal union of other Member States.

Call for Referendum and renegotiation: I am calling upon David Cameron to go to the next Summit and set out an agenda for renegotiation of all the Treaties and to make it clear that there will be a UK Referendum for the proposals for economic governance of the Eurozone and fiscal union.

Referendum question: The question to be asked of the voters, which must be embedded in the Referendum Bill itself, should be on a simple majority whether they wish a) to leave the European Union or b) to renegotiate our relationship with the European Union into a trading association of nation states with political cooperation. This would present the voters with a clear choice and the outcome would depend on which of the two questions achieved more than 50% of those who voted.

Conservative leadership promises: David Cameron in his leadership election made clear that he would protect the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament. In December 2005, after his election, he also promised the “imperative” repatriation of social and employment legislation – see his Centre for Policy Studies speech – which has never been implemented. We need this to obtain growth in the UK for small and medium sized businesses. We cannot reduce the deficit without growth and the EU, apart from Germany , is stagnant.

Sovereignty Act pledge & Human Rights Act pledge denied: The Conservative Manifesto promised a Sovereignty Act and repeal of the Human Rights Act, neither of which have been implemented. The LibDems and other elements in the Conservative Party have blocked these as a result of the Coalition and Nick Clegg has made it crystal clear that there will be no renegotiation of the Treaties. The 56 LibDem votes which give the Coalition majority are therefore an obstruction to our vital national interest.

Lisbon Referendum pledge denied: … the Lisbon Treaty, to which I put up and debated about 150 amendments, was also, line by line, opposed by the Conservative Party (on which we were united for the first time since 1972), and we voted together for a Referendum. The Referendum has been denied and the Lisbon Treaty is now being implemented in full with disastrous consequences day by day for the United Kingdom .

Call for an EFTA-plus arrangement: The UK and other Member States need an EFTA-plus arrangement through a free association of nation states – “associated, but not absorbed”, as Churchill said. … David Cameron should take the lead in establishing the European Free Trade Area-plus which would be purely Intergovernmental. It is in our vital national interest to do so.

German hego-economic advantage: What we are faced with is an unacceptable imbalance of a predominant greater Germany in the context of the rest of the European Union and not only the Eurozone which would develop into a federal system.