More fog in Channel

The nation waits, breath held, belts tight, ears cocked for the great leader's great speech on Europe. What will he say on Friday ?   Why will he say it in the Hague ?   Will it be perhaps in double Dutch ?

The Tory europhobes give their view in Fresh Start.   Simon Titley give his view of their view in the Liberator Blog .  Andrew Duff gives his view in the pamphlet On governing Europe.

I see two certainties and one necessity.  1. There will be a referendum on British membership of the EU during the next parliament.  2. If there were a referendum today, the europhobes would win.   The necessity is to work hard to avoid the same result in 2016 or 2017.

"We're not very popular at the moment"

Just watched Cameron on Letterman.   This is the moment when he responded to the question, "How are you doing ?"   Many people have commented on his failure to translate the words Magna Carta, which is bizarre given his Eton education and, anyway, why couldn't he guess ?   Boris, of course, would have known.   Cameron did, however, work in one of my favourite historical facts, that the British sailed up the Potomac in 1814 and burnt down the White House.    I also noticed his mistake about the royal family.  He said that the Queen's visit to Ireland this year was the first by a member of her family since Irish independence.   Has he forgotten Lord Moutbatten ?

The price of Cameron's "Veto"

As Myles Neligan's article in Reuters shows, the UK is already beginning to pay the price for David Cameron's Brussels histrionics last month. After the EU Summit in December Cameron returned home to a hero's welcome in the popular press and the House of Commons. This was always a bizarre combination of xenophobia and myopia.

Forget how you feel about Europe for a moment. You are a member of a cricket club which is part of a league. Your captain or manager goes off to the league committee meeting, where he presents a list of demands expressly designed to give advantages to your club, based on the characteristics of your ground and your players' skills. The other clubs ask him if he is willing to negotiate on any point and he refuses. The league then decides to change the way it works leaving your club technically still a member but with no fixtures for the coming season. Do you welcome your chap back with applause or do you call him a blithering idiot who has relegated your team even before they have played a single match ?

As the debate on Solvency II regulation for the insurance industry shows,Cameron has failed to protect the financial sector he loves so much and isolated the UK in the process. So much so usual for Tory blinkered nationalism, but for me the shame is that Nick Clegg let it get to this point.

Neologism no.24 : A Merkel

A "Merkel" is when you pretend to give up something in negotiation in return for what you want and thereby (a) get something for nothing and (b) save your opposite number's face.

Thus, Angela Merkel pretends that the UK can repatriate some powers (stupid idea anyway) in return for which Cameron agrees that EU can have tighter fiscal policy.

See also the "reverse Merkel" in which A pretends to accept something (which A was going to accept anyway but pretended to oppose)in return for B accepting something which they were really going to oppose.

Thus (domestic example) the first time I went food shopping with a new partner I pretended that we shouldn't spend money on pasta (or whatever) but gave way when she withdrew her opposition to my chocolate biscuits, which I had anticipated.

State of the United Kingdom

Nick and Danny, David and George, here's some advice on cutting deficits from Barack Obama giving the State of the Union address.

"I am willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without but let's make sure that we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens."

Oh yes, and for Vince:
"Cutting the deficit by cutting the investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded aeroplane by removing its engine."