Do the Tories qualify as internationalist asks The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow. His answer: "Given their stance on the EU, not particularly."
In the second of my recent attempts to engage with our friends at The Guardian about the nature of the Conservative Party (first one here) I can't let that stand. Some of the party's best known Eurosceptics are internationalist. Peter Lilley is a serious student of globalisation and chaired David Cameron's task force on global poverty. Bill Cash was a leading member of the late 1990s campaign to cancel third world debt. John Redwood is a passionate advocate of free trade. Iain Duncan Smith became interested in politics because of what he saw in then Rhodesia and has supported overseas intervention ever since.
The idea that EU = internationalism does not stand up to scrutiny. The EU's aid budget has often been used to further EU nations' commercial interests. The Common Agricultural Policy hurts third world farners. Apart from Britain and the Netherlands EU nations have been very slow to meet their promises on Afghanistan. They've failed to meet Kyoto targets (not that I mind but that's another discussion).
As the Krieg Barrie drawing above (click to enlarge) portrays: the modern EU is a regressively inward-looking affair.