[COMMENT[ CAMERON HAS MADE BRITAIN TOXIC IN EUROPE In his anger, Cameron has made Britain a toxic brand The prime minister rages at the EU’s £1.7bn bill, but his miscalculations have lost Britain vital allies in Europe Anger suits David Cameron. It’s one of the modes he does well. He is skilled at contrition – his Bloody Sunday apology was the moment he became, rather than merely held the office of, prime minister – but fury is his forte. The cheeks colour, the fist pounds the lectern, the words turn plain and demotic. On Friday he channelled the voice of middle-aged men everywhere as they open a brown envelope to discover an unexpected demand for cash. “I’m not paying that bill,” he said, the face puce. “It’s not going to happen.” The sceptical will say Cameron was play-acting, that he can’t really have been surprised by the European commission’s demand that Britain “top up” its contribution by an extra £1.7bn – to reflect the UK’s better than realised economic performance over the past two decades – and cough up by 1 December. Treasury officials have known this was in the works for months. Still, even if this was no October surprise, Cameron had to turn his facial setting to purple. He couldn’t afford to be out-angered by Nigel Farage. With the Rochester byelection looming, a Tory-Ukip showdown, the right of British politics has become an auction of rage: two parties competing to display more vein-bulging ire at Brussels. Indeed, so helpful to the cause of Euroscepticism was the commission’s final-demand letter to Downing Street – doubtless printed in red ink with a warning of a court summons and the involvement of a debt collection agency – it makes one wonder if there is not a Ukip sleeper cell in the upper reaches of the Brussels high command. For even if Farage is apparently so lonely in Europe he has to hook up in the Strasbourg parliament with a pro-Hitler, pro-wifebeating Polish MEP, he clearly has friends in the right places. How else to explain that the commission could demand Greece, which is broke, pay more to enable Germany, which is flush, to pay less? What could possibly be the aim of such a move, if not discrediting the EU? theguardian/commentisfree/2014/oct/24/cameron-britain-eu-bill-lost-allies-europe
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 18:13:42 +0000
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