On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme yesterday, Mr Cameron confirmed his view that, as a trading nation, we need access to the Single Market. "More than that", he added, "we need a say in the rules of that market".

He then reiterated his view, expressed previously, that it was not in our national interests to be in the Single Market like Norway: "just accept all the rules of the Single Market, pay for the privilege of being part of it and, as it were, be governed by fax rule".

Thus do we see the perpetuation of the canard which the prime minister introduced into the debate last December, an issue that even the House of Commons Library is getting wrong. In its briefing note on "Norway's relationship with the EU", published yesterday, it wholly incorrectly declares that, "Norway has little influence on the EU laws and policies it adopts".

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From the above post Richard, you very clearly describe the major problem in the British Government !
The hundreds ( perhaps thousands ? ) of millions that the government spends on legal advice each year is to no effect, If, I repeat a colossal IF, there was one brain in the thousands of sheep in the government a referendum would not be needed as the UK would have been out at the beginning !

So a question, does Cameron actually care about getting re-elected? Perhaps he just wants to sit out this one and then get a nice lobbyist job or so.

C.C. David Cameron.

Richard

Excellent explanation of what really happens but I do have one question which I would raise and one which I would anticipate my MP trying when I am bending her ear about this.

"Thus, the relationship between Norway as an EEA member and the EU is far from one of a supplicant to a greater power. Norway plays a very active part in the international community, and is heavily involved in the framing of international law, much of which is then adopted by the EU."

My question is: Does the EU participate in the earlier stages of the drafting of policy in the way you describe Norway doing above or does it merely act as a 'rubber stamp' (although it has the capacity to reject policy) for frameworks passed to it? I think I'm trying to establish whether the EU is passive throughout the the whole of the framing process or whether it is actively engaged in the drafting phase too.

JT

What I have described is a simplification. The answer is yes, and increasingly so. As the EU has assumed a legal identity, it too is a party to many of the treaties and conventions - where it sits at the "top table" alongside the likes of Norway. EU member states assume the subordinate position, with the EU tending to represent member states on these bodies.

This is all extraordinarily informative and helpful. The problem remains, however, that neither our rulers nor the MSM, as you so elegantly and frequently tell us, 'do detail'. It's all too much like hard work.

I would also point out that, even when an international organization develops something such as Kyoto or LOST or Agenda 21, member nations in that international body are not necessarily bound to adopt those positions. But for those of you in the EU, once Brussels has agreed, y'all are really and truly stuffed!

Is this Cameron's "Goebbels moment"? I think this is the full quote (correct me if I am wrong)

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

The man is deliberately lying and being assisted by an effective neutered media who dare not expose the lie for what it is.

Only if you believe they did not, and do not understand.
As we have seen recently the USA thinks it is in their interests for the UK to be a member of the EU and in so many areas of foreign policy our national interests seem subservient to theirs why should we not assume this is just another one and our mandarinate and politicians were just obeying orders?