It’s days like this when we should remember that Britain is, officially, the most eurosceptic nation in the EU. Europe may not rank high on the average Brit’s list of policy priorities, but many will nonetheless cheer at the idea of us stepping aside from Merkel and Sarkozy’s bulldozing plan. Whether the PM swashbuckled or blundered into saying ‘No’, that ‘No’ is unlikely to harm the public’s perception of him — and will probably boost it.
That’s what makes all this particularly difficult for Ed Miliband. Unlike some in his party, the Labour leader is not inclined to out-sceptic Cameron, so that leaves basically one alternative: to claim that the PM has irresponsibly alienated Britain from Brussels, and that our influence will wane as a result. And that is exactly what MiliE has done today. As he put it on
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