David Cameron has crossed the Rubicon. There is no going back. By
proposing to limit free movement of labour from the EU he has planted
himself on the side of the outs, as José Manuel Barroso made crystal
clear in his Chatham House speech on Monday. The other 27 nations will
never agree: if limiting national insurance numbers for EU workers is
Cameron’s new red line then he has joined the Ukip wing of his party,
who won’t let him renege.
“I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer … when it comes to free movement,” he told his conference, and now that’s confirmed. In a riposte to Barroso’s plain statement of the facts on EU law, No 10 rudely warned him that he “should be under no illusion that the status quo is not acceptable to the UK”. Cameron went one worse and told him “who is the boss” on immigration.
There is no effective difference between Ukip and the Conservatives, both heading for the exit – except, as Nigel Farage says, Cameron “is deceiving the British public” with nonexistent options, breeding more political cynicism.
Cameron is no Caesar. He has been dragged backwards across this Rubicon by his enemies, in the long lurch away from Europe that began when he used an anti-EU ploy to secure the Tory leadership. Leadership? Not really, he’s been trailing after the Europhobes ever since, trying to keep up. Every step since then he has conceded British interests to appease the unappeasables. He won with a promise to withdraw the Tories from the European People’s party, outraging natural conservative allies such as Angela Merkel.
That bartering of British influence was the telling moment: Cameron would put his political interest ahead of his country’s in ways that would surely shock previous Tory prime ministers. Would any of them deliberately risk the nation’s pivotal international relationship just to swing an embarrassing byelection in Rochester? Cameron’s stated view is that Britain is better off inside the EU – but not, it seems, if it puts him to much inconvenience.
Note EU-Digest: maybe the best thing for Britain will be to hold the referendum on opting out of the EU because it would provide sensible British citizens together with recent immigrants, minorities and business groups, who realize that getting out of the EU would be suicide for Britain, to defeat the Conservative grouping who are against being part of Europe for once and for all
Read more: David Cameron has now passed the point of no return on Europe | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian
“I will go to Brussels, I will not take no for an answer … when it comes to free movement,” he told his conference, and now that’s confirmed. In a riposte to Barroso’s plain statement of the facts on EU law, No 10 rudely warned him that he “should be under no illusion that the status quo is not acceptable to the UK”. Cameron went one worse and told him “who is the boss” on immigration.
There is no effective difference between Ukip and the Conservatives, both heading for the exit – except, as Nigel Farage says, Cameron “is deceiving the British public” with nonexistent options, breeding more political cynicism.
Cameron is no Caesar. He has been dragged backwards across this Rubicon by his enemies, in the long lurch away from Europe that began when he used an anti-EU ploy to secure the Tory leadership. Leadership? Not really, he’s been trailing after the Europhobes ever since, trying to keep up. Every step since then he has conceded British interests to appease the unappeasables. He won with a promise to withdraw the Tories from the European People’s party, outraging natural conservative allies such as Angela Merkel.
That bartering of British influence was the telling moment: Cameron would put his political interest ahead of his country’s in ways that would surely shock previous Tory prime ministers. Would any of them deliberately risk the nation’s pivotal international relationship just to swing an embarrassing byelection in Rochester? Cameron’s stated view is that Britain is better off inside the EU – but not, it seems, if it puts him to much inconvenience.
Note EU-Digest: maybe the best thing for Britain will be to hold the referendum on opting out of the EU because it would provide sensible British citizens together with recent immigrants, minorities and business groups, who realize that getting out of the EU would be suicide for Britain, to defeat the Conservative grouping who are against being part of Europe for once and for all
Read more: David Cameron has now passed the point of no return on Europe | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian
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