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Cameron marginalises Britain for no gain at all

It is almost surreal that Cameron exercised his veto when (i) there had been no serious or detailed examination of EU financial services regulation at the point when he did so, (ii) financial services regulation was not a central issue on the agenda at all, and (iii) there had been no discussion on the real subject of the Summit which was how once and for all to resolve the lingering Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. It is also truly bizarre that he used the UK veto when it meant that (iv) so far from protecting the interests of the City of London he was leaving them more exposed to any future EU objectives, and (v) he was sacrificing British involvement in any future EU decisions on the development of Europe, putting Britain in a perilous position against any unpredictable contingencies which might threaten us.

So why did he do it when he did, at 2.3o am on Friday morning before the Summit had even really got underway? It appears that he had gone to Brussels without any serious proposals for solving the Eurozone crisis, that he decided at the start that he would make no progress on his two narrow objectives (stopping Euro-nominated financial transactions being allowed only in Eurozone markets and blocking a financial transactions tax), and that he would therefore make the most of failure by a gesture which would gain the acclamation of his increasingly strident Right-wing back-benchers. There could not be a more naked example of putting party before country, of consolidating his own internal power base at the expense of the national interest which is always to keep a place at the table as the basis to exercise power whenever it might be needed.

But what is above all so scandalous is that Cameron has stood down Britain’s power base within Europe when the fundamental issue for the UK now is not the Merkel-Sarkozy plan for closer EU control over national budgetary policies (though their plan is far too deflationary), nor any putative financial services regulation (where the UK government should anyway be taking a tough line), but rather the critical weakness of the UK economy. That does require radical banking reform in the UK and the regaining of public control over the money supply, a national strategic plan to revitalise British manufacturing industry, and a major sustained upgrading of educational, workforce and managerial performance.

In these circumstances gratuitously to throw away Britain’s position as a major leader within Europe is an abandonment of responsibility and influence without equal as an error of diplomacy since Suez.

One Comment

  1. Gary Elsby says:

    He waved the white piece of appeasment paper to his extremist right wing back benchers and much to the delight of all UKIPers and Nationaists scattered around a near bankrupt Britain.
    Cameron has proven to be a nothing in British politics and the tide of popular one issue support from the polls will give way to serious people now concerned with an uproot of bigger business to Continental EUropean mainland.

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