Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 31 March 2009.
Caroline Flint
Minister of State (Europe)
2:30,
31 March 2009
We can be proud that the UK Government have more friends and allies in Europe in 2009 than we inherited in 1997. What is important is that we can come together across Europe, at this crucial time for our citizens, to focus on the issues that matter—rather than on internal institutional navel-gazing, which the Conservative party likes to do. The Conservatives' decision to remove themselves from their alliance with the European People's party is a bad one; it is bad for politics and it is bad for—
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
