By Andy Smith
By rejecting the "Merkozy" plan to deepen the powers of the EU in the wake of the latest Eurozone crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron may well have fired the opening shot in the campaign to decisively change Britain's relationship with Europe. But did he mean to do this? Was he so shocked by the backbench rebellion over the EU in the House of Commons a few weeks before that he felt he needed to return to his supposedly Eurosceptic roots? Perhaps his advisers had persuaded him that his speech against a referendum on EU membership had "not played well" with grass-roots Tories or the electorate? Or did he not quite realise the far-reaching implications of his decision to block the EU's latest power grab?
Certainly, when he went to Brussels his intention seems to have been purely to protect the interests of the City of London, rather than advancing the cause of national independence. Although the Downing Street spinmasters sought to project a Churchillian image of Mr Cameron "battling for Britain", in reality it seems more a case of his battling for the bankers - or rather for Anglo-American bankers as opposed to the German bankers whose interests Angela Merkel and her French crony Nicolas Sarkozy were busy championing.
However, it has to be said that whatever Mr Cameron's motives were in refusing to bend to Franco-German demands, those of us who believe Britain would be better off out of the EU can only rejoice at the effects of his actions. Indeed, the resulting political storm in Brussels - with Monsieur Sarkozy and Frau Merkel publicly rebuking the British Prime Minister, and with Mr Cameron's own deputy PM, Nick Clegg, criticising the Conservatives' supposedly "isolationist" tendencies - will have done more to bring closer our goal of UK disengagement from the EU than any other political development of the past 18 months. So, I happily give two cheers for David Cameron, though not three. I will give the third only if and when the Conservatives show themselves capable of taking the next, much bigger, step towards the restoration of British independence. I see no sign yet of the Tories showing themselves willing to embrace the cause of withdrawal from the EU. But a referendum could soon be on the agenda.
We in the Campaign for an Independent Britain must make ourselves ready for the great battles ahead.
