Why I think Number 10 no longer bats for Britian. (From Daily Echo)

Plan to give away defence company to the French and Germans is madness - and a betrayal

10:07am Tuesday 25th September 2012 in Editor Ian Murray's Blog By Ian Murray, Editor-in-chief

I cannot fathom what this government is doing supporting the sell off of defence giant BAE to the French and Germans.

I can only imagine some powerful friends in the City think this will make a lot of money for bankers and pals of those in the know.

There can be no other reason for handing over thousands of jobs and the last great company that this nation has left to foreign ownership.

Of course that's a simple way of looking at it. It may be much more complex. It may be that there are forces working here to take away Britain's independence as a nation just in case we ever do vote to leave the EU. How could we stand alone, those who disagree with such a move would say, when we cannot make our own defence equipment any longer without the agreement of the French and Germans?

They would be right too. A nation that cannot defend itself is not a nation.

Vince Cable has indicated he is not against foreign ownership of BAE. He would. There should be no surprises here. The Liberal Democrats are European to their bootstraps and would prefer the UK to be part of a federal Europe. Merging all of our industry, especially ones vital to our sovereignty, is fine with them.

But for the Tories to support the move, I am baffled.

In the end I don't think David Cameron has gone Euro on us. It's just that sadly, I believe Number 10 no longer bats for Britain. It no longer bats for anyone in particular.

We are assured - or will be by the PM when the deal is down - that cast iron guarantees have been received from the French and Germans that the UK's jobs and say in the merged company will remain ring-fenced. Those will be the same cast iron guarantees given on EU referendums and will hold as much chance of being upheld. At some future point the UK arm of the company will be scaled down, the jobs taken away and the UK neutered once and for all as a stand alone power.

Perhaps this is after all what the PM wants? Perhaps he does prefer us to become just a department ruled by Brussels?

Strangely I don't think that Labour would actually do the same. But then again I could be wrong. They all seem a totally useless bunch who rule us these days.