JAMES
LEE
FOREIGN SECRETARY
DOORSTEP INTERVIEW
7 OCTOBER 1992
2.3
34847I8249 P.07
GATWICK AIRPORT
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
We have to pursue our argument as we were doing yesterday
successfully and as we will have to do in the House of Commons and
the House of Lords that is our problem.
J
The Danes have a problem;
other countries have a problem with
we have to show that
their opinion so we have to be persuasive;
the Treaty of Maastricht is a step forward but is not a blueprint
for a superstate
-
which I am convinced will never happen unless
we in Britain were foolish enough to opt out
-
so there is a lot
of persuasion ahead but then that is natural when you have got a
Community of twelve democracies.
INTERVIEWER:
Some in your party, just thinking about Lord Tebbit, clearly don't
believe that it won't lead to a superstate; they just doubt what
you are saying. Why can't they take that in, do you think?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
I think because they are in part anxious about what has already
happened in the Community. Norman Tebbit and I are clear that we
we should come out.
don't want a superstate but he is also clear that we have to stay
in the Community. He is not one of those wild voices which says
The question between us is whether the Treaty
of Maastricht is a help in reaching our objective or a hindrance.
I am quite sure it i
help and that if we ourselves tore it up
or started to try to renegotiate something and all the