I see "Conservative Party donor" Stuart Wheeler is at it again. This evening he will be making a really valuable contribution to a Conservative victory at the next election by making a speech urging people not to vote Conservative. Well done Stuart. Really well done.
In the James Goldsmith Memorial Lecture he will urge people not to vote for the Conservatives in the European elections next June unless David Cameron commits to two pledges in his party's manifesto.
The two pledges he says the Conservatives must make are;
1. A promise that if the Lisbon Treaty is not law when they come to power, they will hold a referendum on whether to withdraw UK ratification.
2. A promise that if the Lisbon Treaty is law when they come to power, there will be an immediate, massive renegotiation of the UK's relationship with the EU. If the UK did not get what it wants, the UK should pull out of the Union altogether.
Wheeler must know that the first one is already Conservative Party policy, as is the first part of the second. He must also know that the Party will not commit to pulling out in the way that he suggests. So what he has done is create a self fulfilling prophesy. The effect of people not voting Conservative in the Euro elections would mean the election of more Europhile MPs. You'd have thought a so-called spread betting tycoon would be able to see the logic of that, but it appears not.
I have said asked it before on this blog and I will ask it again. Why does anyone take this sort of thing seriously? Stuart Wheeler is of no influence in the Conservative Party and hasn't been for years. As far as I can work out he hasn't donated money to the party for five years, so why does he describe himself as a Conservative Party donor, something the media is then keen to repeat?
Stuart Wheeler is the Charles Clarke of the Conservative Party. Every few months he needs his fix of publicity. And making statements like this ensure that he gets it.
