Boris Johnson Says `Sloth` Is Britain`s Problem, Not The EU
Baku, May 13 (AZERTAC). Boris Johnson has issued a bizarre backing of Tory backbench demands for an EU referendum bill and attacked British workers and their `sloth`.
The London Mayor has questioned why `person for person` Germans are more productive than British employees and warned eurosceptics that quitting the EU would expose the fact that most of the country`s problems were self-inflicted. He also warned David Cameron he must make clear Britain is "ready to walk away" unless its relationship is fundamentally reformed. "If we left the EU, we would end this sterile debate, and we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by `Bwussels`, but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills, a culture of easy gratification and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure," he said in his Daily Telegraph column. "Why are we still, person for person, so much less productive than the Germans? That is now a question more than a century old, and the answer is nothing to do with the EU. In or out of the EU, we must have a clear vision of how we are going to be competitive in a global economy."
Mr Johnson`s intervention in the fraught Conservative debate over the UK`s future in Europe came after two senior cabinet ministers publicly declared that they would vote No if the present relationship was put to a vote. He pledged his "full support" to the Prime Minister`s strategy of seeking a new pared-down deal to put to the country in an in/out referendum by 2017 if the Tories win the next general election. But he said he wanted to see "legislation now to make sure that referendum goes ahead". Up to 100 Tory MPs are tipped later this week to back a Commons amendment tabled by backbench eurosceptics expressing "regret" that Mr Cameron failed to include a Bill enshrining the vote pledge in law in the Queen`s Speech. Downing Street has told ministers to abstain in the vote but is allowing other MPs, including parliamentary aides, a free vote, saying Mr Cameron was "relaxed" about them formally criticising his legislative package. In his Daily Telegraph column Mr Johnson suggested legislation would mean "we will all have to focus not on the feud - so toxic, so delicious, so gloriously fratricidal - but on what is actually right for the country; on the nuts and bolts of what we are trying to achieve". "We are all going to have to wrap that cold towel round our heads and ask: do I want in or out? And why?" he said. Mr Johnson wrote that the EU was "no longer of key importance to the destiny of this country" as it focused increasingly on making the eurozone work, meaning it was right for Mr Cameron to seek a new deal. But he added: "This renegotiation can only work if we understand clearly what we want to achieve: a pared-down relationship based on free trade and co-operation. "And our partners will only take us seriously if they think we will invoke Article 50, and pull out, if we fail to get what we want. If we are going to have any chance of success in the negotiations, we need to show that the UK is willing to walk away."
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