Published: July 21, 2010
“The Government’s policy must not be put at the mercy of millionaires who play with British politics as a hobby or a boost to newspaper sales.”Ending the strategy of loftily ignoring his arguments, Mr Hurd denounced Sir James’s call for a referendum, beyond that promised already by Mr Major, and his protectionism.Conservative Central Office yesterday sent out copies of the French and English versions of a section of Sir James’s book The Trap, to point out that he had omitted from the latter favourable references to the European Monetary system.Mr Hurd suggested the idea of a referendum on whether Britain should be part of a European “superstate” would be futile. Douglas Hurd last night invoked the spectre of rampant pre-war nationalism in Europe when he delivered the Tory establishment’s most withering attack yet on Sir James Goldsmith’s intervention in British politics. Asking “What possible use is Sir James Goldsmith or the referendum he proposes?” the former Foreign Secretary challenged the anti-EU tycoon on whether there was a limit to the extent to which he would “unravel what has been achieved since the last war. Is it the Europe of 1945 he wants, or 1935?”
Mr Hurd gave a clear warning to right-wingers contemplating a referendum on EU membership or withdrawal, under pressure from electoral fear of Sir James’s party.”The Prime Minister is right,” Mr Hurd told the European Movement in Edinburgh.
“There are things the tunnel simply can’t do,” a spokesman said.Photograph: David Giles / PA. K&ESR is being twinned with Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme – at Noyelles, 50 miles from Calais. The engine is to join Noyelles’ festival of steam this weekend P&O Ferries was quick to help and relish the irony. And once again, pictured left at Dover harbour, it was going by ship.
The tank engine, built in 1909 in Ashford, Kent, cannot make its way through the Channel tunnel under its own steam because it would have played havoc with the link’s smoke detectors. It would also not fit on a Le Shuttle freight wagon.
The engine, operated by Kent and East Sussex Railway, was requisitioned to haul munitions in Boulogne. The last time steam locomotive No 1556 went to France, in the First World War, it travelled by ship. Eighty years and a pounds 10bn Channel tunnel rail link later, No 1556 was on its way back to France yesterday. Few military campaigns can have failed so uniformly to achieve their ends.The Israeli aim was to weaken Hizbollah and Syria.
But 16 days of bombardment have only left them more powerful.The only other Israeli war to produce similarly disastrous results was its invasion of Lebanon in 1982.Qana’s horrors, page 11. He is expected to travel to the US today and will be feted by President Bill Clinton, who is sparing no effort to ensure that the Israeli Prime Minister is re-elected on 29 May.Mr Peres is unlikely to suffer political damage in Israel, though the opposition Likud party will probably accuse him of mismanaging the campaign. Israel suffered no military casualties and only three civilians were seriously wounded by Katyushas during the operation.He can also say he showed, contrary to what his detractors claim, that he is tough on security and not afraid to use force.In practice, the pledge by both sides not to target civilians and the monitoring system will hamper Israel more than Hizbollah because Israel has much superior firepower The level of fighting will be dependent on Syrian goodwill. Even the United Nations, whose 4,500 international peace-keepers have had to watch the slaughter and whose compound at Qana was targeted by the Israelis, had no idea last night what role they might be expected to play in monitoring the more limited guerrilla war.Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon remains intact – there was not a single reference to UN Security Council Resolution 425, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, and Israel’s demand that Hizbollah be disarmed has been ignored. In reality, therefore, the conflict in southern Lebanon has been restored to the status quo which existed a month ago.Shimon Peres has gained little strategically from his operation.