Tag: David Cameron

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David Cameron can’t help the No campaign…. | The Guardian

Charle Brooker on David Cameron and Scotland’s independence referendum:

Cameron can’t help here, of course. In Scotland, David Cameron is less popular than Windows 8. He’s the physical embodiment of everything a fair percentage of Scottish people hate: a ruddy-faced old Etonian walking around like he just inherited the place, sporting a permanently shiny chin as though he’s just enjoyed a buttery crumpet in front of the cricket….

Read more at David Cameron can’t help the No campaign – he’s less popular in Scotland than Windows 8 | Comment is free | The Guardian.

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The “Junckernaut” is driving Britain to inevitable separation | Telegraph

Jeremy Warner on the drive for Britain to separate from the EU:

…Yet getting out entirely doesn’t strike me as either a wise or necessary approach to the developing standoff in relations…..Jacques Delors, who whatever you might think of him remains one of the few leaders of any authority and vision to have emerged from the European quagmire, has suggested a possible way out for Britain – a sort of amicable divorce, but with extensive child visiting rights. He’s called it “privileged partnership”, with apparent access to the single market and some say in its operation. For some eurosceptics, this will not be sufficient, for it would require agreement to the four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, labour and capital…..Yet from a purely economic perspective, this looks like a good and workable solution. For the rest of Europe, the single currency is driving a process of integration which must ultimately require some form of fiscal and political union. It’s still a long way off, but it is coming, and inevitably, it places Britain in a completely different, non participant role…..

Read more at The "Junckernaut" is driving Britain to inevitable separation – Telegraph Blogs.

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German Press Review of Cameron Call for British EU Referendum | SPIEGEL ONLINE

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“Cameron’s strategy may be dangerous, but his analysis isn’t wrong. Euro-zone integration is getting ever deeper and that has consequences for EU countries that are not part of the common currency. In general, the competitive capacity across the EU leaves a lot to be desired. And the people are growing more and more distant from ‘Europe’ and its institutions. None of this can be disputed. A few things need to be settled. Is it imperative that we continue transferring more power to ‘Brussels’? In what areas is it essential, indispensable in fact, that we act together? What role should national parliaments play in European policies? What’s clear is what the British do and do not want: They want an internal market and cooperation between member states, but they do not want an ‘ever-closer union’.”

Read more at German Press Review of Cameron Call for British EU Referendum – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

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Cameron’s Rejection of EU Summit Isolates Britain

“There is now little point in Britain staying in the EU,” said MacShane, who was a minister in Tony Blair’s generally pro-Europe Labour Party government. “It is an historic turning point and Britain might as well get out now, as Europe’s future will be settled without us.”

…….The economic impact of leaving the European Union would be difficult to predict. British companies might lose easy access to European markets — where they now enjoy open trade, with few barriers — but Britain also might be able to negotiate a favorable trade treaty with Europe, as Israel and Mexico have done.

via Cameron’s Rejection of EU Summit Isolates Britain.

Comment: ~ Withdrawal from the EU could harm the same financial sector that David Cameron has vowed to protect. The UK may view tighter financial regulation and/or transaction taxes imposed by the EU as a threat, but interruption to trade/financial flows posed by isolation from the EU would be an even greater danger.

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BBC News – David Cameron defends decision to block EU-wide treaty

Having failed to reach an agreement of all 27 EU members, the 17 eurozone countries and the other EU states apart from the UK are expected to sign up to the new deal, which includes:

• a commitment to “balanced budgets” for eurozone countries- defined as a structural deficit no greater than 0.5% of gross domestic product – to be written into national constitutions

• automatic sanctions for any eurozone country whose deficit exceeds 3% of GDP

• a requirement to submit their national budgets to the European Commission, which will have the power to request that they be revised

Mr Cameron said the abandoned treaty change involving all 27 members had been in danger of “distorting the single market”.

“I think I did the right thing for Britain,” he said. “We were offered a treaty that didn’t have proper safeguards for Britain and I decided it was not right to sign that treaty.”

via BBC News – David Cameron defends decision to block EU-wide treaty.

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EU Treaty Takes Shape – WSJ.com

[European Union] leaders, who are still deeply divided over key elements of their crisis strategy, decided they would move to form a pact among at least 23 of the members to tighten rules on national fiscal policy.

But details of the proposed treaty remained to be settled. The U.K. stood aside—after Prime Minister David Cameron failed with what officials said was a “shopping list of demands” designed among other things to protect national supervision of its banks—while Hungary, Sweden and the Czech Republic reserved their positions.

“We will achieve the new fiscal union. We will have a euro currency within a stable union,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the end of the meeting. “We will have stronger budget deficit regulations for euro-zone members.”

via EU Treaty Takes Shape – WSJ.com.

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