Airstrip One

Jack Straw's Press Conference - 12th December 2002, 23.04

Reading through the transcript of Jack Straw's press conference is one of the less stimulating tasks that I set myself today. His replies clarify that the basis of this government's policy is very thin and that they are not very good at thinking on their feet. When questioned about the relaxation of immigration controls for the enlargement candidates, Straw made the surprising assertion that more British would move to West Central Europe than Central Europeans would move to these islands.

And as I say, the difference between now and May 2004, if that is the date, is that by May 2004 people from all 10 accession countries will be able to travel to the United Kingdom without a visa, no conditions on their travel or their stay. The only issue is will they be able to work lawfully here. We think this is sensible and I have already said that we continue to hold in reserve controls which we can use at any time up to 7 years if our predictions don't arise, and that I think it will be a two-way street with more Brits going abroad than [immigrants from Central Europe] coming here.

But an aside on a weak issue is not the central point of this post. On the eve of the Copenhagen conference, Straw did not mention one European country by name when discussing diplomatic developments. Questions concerning Cyprus, Iraq and the Middle East focused on the roles of regional powers and the negotiations. Straw made repeated references to meetings with other European foreign ministers but not in the same breath as any diplomatic decisions that Britain was actually making or supporting (supporting India and Israel on a terrorist convention).

There are two complementary judgements that can be made here: the European Union is less important in current foreign policy as issues such as Iraq and the 'war on terror' have come to the fore; and the 'enlargement' hype on the Copenhagen summit is puffing up its significance above and beyond the sole news of manoevrings over Turkey in order to raise the profile of Blair.

It also displays the poverty of thought in our current foreign policy, although, to be fair to Straw, a role as camp follower is not designed to spark synapses.