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British Tories can learn from Republican mistakes
Your party won’t consider your reforms if they think you don’t respect them, says Jon Huntsman
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David Cameron faces tough decisions on Europe – most with lasting implications for Conservative party unity and all with long-term ramifications for Britain’s prosperity. The UK prime minister must keep his country an active member of the EU while keeping hold of an increasingly eurosceptic Tory party.
It is hard to see how the UK can thrive without remaining inside the EU’s vast internal market – a local free-trade block that can preserve and reward British innovation and entrepreneurship. Membership is good not only for Britain, but for the EU too. The UK has consistently been the main defender of EU competition policy as well as the home of its financial capital. Both are essential to drive prosperity in a continent smothered in red tape.
And Britain will only become more important to the EU: European growth depends on the outcome of upcoming free-trade negotiations between the US and the EU – the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. The most enthusiastic proponents in Europe are Germany and the UK, both of whom also want to spread the deregulatory successes of Gerhard Schröder and Margaret Thatcher to the rest of the EU.
So a UK exit could be fatal not just to the TTIP but also to the battle for free markets against state-run capitalism, which encourages cronyism. Some have dismissed Germany’s recent success, claiming it is either not a result of its regulatory reforms or is inapplicable to the EU’s southern rim. But where reforms have been successfully implemented, there have been signs of renewed economic life. As Thatcher once said, now is not the time to go “wobbly”.
There is no one as well suited as the modern Tories to maintaining and extending the rules-based economic miracle of the past two centuries. The UK cannot do it alone – and the US and EU are unlikely to do it without the UK. The British are the bridge. And, since growth is the cornerstone of independence, the TTIP could do more to preserve the UK’s sovereignty than the abandonment of its historic partners.
But the necessity of Britain’s EU engagement does not mean ignoring eurosceptics. Political dysfunction and economic stasis have increased the trust deficit between Europe’s citizens and their politicians. This democratic deficit is as important as our fiscal and trade deficits.
Closing it will be delicate. Economic initiatives such as the TTIP will be unsustainable without greater support for the EU. It will also be hard to make the economic case for the tough structural reforms that the EU needs if it is to compete in this new century without more trust. Euroscepticism speaks to this issue – a real and messy problem.
But the Conservative party must learn from the failure of the Republicans in the last US election. The GOP based its strategy on the next news cycle instead of the next generation. My party’s emphasis on tactics and personalities served only to disconnect it further from voters. Today’s Republican party should be focused not only on tax reform, energy policy and rebuilding the opportunity ladder but also on institutional change – such as cleaning up a system of campaign finance that has become a national embarrassment.
The need for an inclusive manifesto holds true for the Tories as well. But it is difficult to get people, including members of your own party, to consider your reforms if they think – sometimes with good reason – that you do not like or respect them. The Conservative leadership must be careful not to be dismissive of those with deeply held beliefs, making sure to include them without letting them lead the party down rabbit holes in pursuit of cultural (or European) battles.
When a party stops solving problems, people move away from it. The Republican party’s decay – from Iraq to our tolerance for inanity – is grounded in real policy failures. Our historic successes were in solving big problems. How Mr Cameron proceeds could prove to be valuable well beyond just the economics and the UK. Conservatives everywhere are looking for courageous leadership. If he succeeds, he could have a profound transatlantic impact.
The writer was formerly governor of Utah, US ambassador to China and a candidate for the Republican party nomination for president
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