17/07/2014
"What is most apparent", says
The Independent, "is that Mr Cameron will find it impossible to reach the kind of renegotiation he could offer the British people in his planned in/out referendum â and that is assuming he wins anything like a convincing majority at the next election". It continues:
As a head of a minority administration, or in a renewed coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Mr Cameron's own democratic mandate and political power at home would be severely compromised. Appointing the Eurosceptic Philip Hammond as Foreign Secretary may not prove a winning move. Even at this distance we can discern the risk: that the Cameron-Hammond duo will go to the country with a deal so poor it is rejected.
"Thus have the past few days nudged us closer to "Brexit", a catastrophic British exit from Europe", the paper then adds.
Isn't it marvellous how long it has taken this august newspaper to come to the obvious conclusion, that there is little chance of Mr Cameron coming up with any worthwhile concessions in any negotiations.
I still wish we could be as assured that were closer to a "Brexit", though â catastrophic or otherwise. It would take a brave man to predict that Mr Cameron will win the general election, and then there is that small hurdle of a referendum.
But with Mr Cameron doing his best to make a complete shambles of the appointment of the British commissioner, and the European Parliament doing its best to humiliate Britain, it almost seems as if they want us gone. So, if the
Independent is worried that we might be on our way out, then there might be some room for optimism.
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