He’s the newspaper columnist I have the greatest respect for, so when Will Hutton writes an alarmingly critical column about the EU, you need to listen. You can read the column here. His argument is not so different from ones I have advanced on this blog – that Europe just cannot carry on in its present vein, with member states just happy to ‘have a go’ at the EU. He fears for the whole project unless leaders get their acts together soon. His criticism of Blair and Brown in this regard is also spot on. Reading the column is well worth 5 minutes, and then think about how we can start to do something about the predicament!

[Update – 24.10.2005]
Just a day after Hutton, Jackie Ashley has written a further alarming piece in The Guardian about how EU questions are dividing Labour more and more. Her quotes from a forthcoming publication by Europe Minister Douglas Alexander are quite scary, going on about how cooperation among European countries on labour market reform is never going to be viable. Does Alexander not realise that if all of Europe continues to falter, it will have a negative impact on the UK too? We are all interdependent – economically and politically – in this EU, and I wish more UK government ministers would get to grips with that.