The euro deal still matters to the UK

 
Evening Standard Comment12 September 2012
WEST END FINAL

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The German constitutional court has spoken, and to the relief of the markets, the judges have given a thumbs-up to Germany’s participation in the European fiscal treaty and the European Stability Mechanism. This matters. Germany’s contribution to the eurozone bailout fund amounts to 27 per cent of the £400 billion involved. Without Germany, it wouldn’t function.

But the court’s ruling is not unqualified. Any expansion in the fund or in German contributions would require the approval of the German parliament. Fair enough. This is to impose legitimate democratic control over how enormous sums of German taxpayers’ money are spent.

In the excitement over the court’s decision, however, a speech today by the EU Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, risks being overlooked. He calls for the EU to evolve into a “federation of nation-states” and for the “sharing of sovereignty”, which will require a new treaty to bring about. He also set out supervisory plans for a banking union in the eurozone.

In the short term, it is the proposals for a eurozone banking union that will most affect the UK. Britain supports that union but the City is concerned about some of the small print, which could mean that the UK would find it harder to contest rules from the European Banking Authority that affect us. If George Osborne were to agree to sweeping powers for the EBA, it would compromise our power of veto. As for Mr Barroso’s other proposal, for a federation, it is just the kind of measure that promises to reopen the toxic debate about the EU we do not need.

Failing our children

THE phrase “taken into care” has a more than usually ironic ring when it comes to some of the children who are the responsibility of London boroughs. As our report today shows, some authorities have sent children in their care to homes outside their boroughs. Of the 10,390 children in care in London, 60 per cent are placed outside their boroughs, and in the case of inner London boroughs, 68 per cent. More than a fifth were sent more than 20 miles away.

In some cases, the child needs to be removed from damaging influences in their area and councils have difficulty finding proper accommodation in the borough. The crucial thing, however, is that these decisions about removing children far from home and school should be made in the child’s best interests. In the case of the 228 London children placed in Kent, as far away as Margate, this is questionable. They remain the responsibility of their borough but at this distance it is difficult to supervise them. Worse, in some areas outside London, the concentration of children’s homes attracts the attention of paedophiles and drug pushers. These children are among the most vulnerable in society. Local authorities must take far greater pains to place them in decent foster care or, failing that, in children’s homes where they are properly protected — preferably in an area they know.

Bigots?

THE Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has hastened to distance himself from the word “bigot” that featured in the draft of a speech of his in connection with opponents of gay marriage. Some opponents admittedly hardly fall into that category, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. But it is also true that opposition to it has attracted those with quite irrational objections and whose stance is chiefly determined by the fact that they simply don’t like gays and gay relationships. Bigots, in short.

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