3 Cheers for Cameron

I have been critical of Cameron on a number of issues but to my relief and amazement he has come up trumps on the EU. This is a defining moment for him and one which the LibDems have to go along with or be annihilated in an election Cameron will call if the LibDems were to jump ship. Merkozy knew their insistence on castrating the City was a red line in the sand for us, Osborne had made this perfectly clear to them some weeks ago. So they had us lined up as the whipping boy from the off and for once our people sussed this out and prepared their ground accordingly. Cameron asked for the minimum he could ask for by way of protection for the City without creating an impossible position for the government back home.Merkozy clearly thought they had an opportunity either to crush us into submission or to get rid of us.  A win win situation as they saw it. They probably thought though on balance that Cameron would give in but they underestimated him. They will in due course come to regret their coup when we grow and they don't, when they are trapped in a currency that their so called fiscal union will not save and when it all comes to a disastrous end. A Swiss friend believes that in order for Europe to be anything in this world it must become a real country so that it can compete with not only the US but also the BRIC blocs. He is in favour of proper fiscal union, namely one treasury, one central bank and one government and believes that what Merkozy now propose is the next step on the way to a federal europe. I fear he will be disappointed as there are other countries who will not want to be subsumed into a Franco-German hegemony. The UK could never attach itself to such an enterprise. The UK longs for greater free trade and freedom from the CAP and the Common Fisheries Policy. If it needs to join an economic group it needs to look to like minded countries in the anglosphere. Let's not forget that our history in Europe grates somewhat with europeans particularly as some of us cannot but help remember it and allow it to permeate our attitude towards them. Merkozy basically dislike us for that attitude as they cannot treat us quite like the other members of the EU. Who can blame them but hey, who can blame us.