I have just been at the Conservative Friends of Israel Business Lunch, which can best be
described as a triumphalist ‘smugfest’ in the wake of David Cameron’s bulldog moment in Europe last week. The Tory leadership should be very wary of this moment. We have just entered a period of
unprecedented political division in this country. For a party that wishes to be on the centre ground of British politics, this is not a good place to be. The headlines in the Guardian (‘Cameron cuts UK adrift’) and the Daily Mail (‘The day he put Britain first’) expressed this in two sentences the chasm that
now exists in the political class. So much for the Cameroons’ healing centrism.
But does this really matter? The opinion polls suggest a substantial section of the British public backs Cameron’s stance (although many do not) and this will help him gird his loins for further isolation in a Europe that few in this country feel passionately about.
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