When it came to the passage in his speech on Europe, William Hague was clearly building up to a crescendo. He thundered out the lines ‘which will require the fresh consent of the British people’, and then paused for what he expected to be a rapturous round of applause from a Tory audience thrilled to have received more red meat on Europe. The applause certainly came, but it wasn’t exactly full of enthusiasm; more a perfunctory round of clapping.
The first thing holding back the cheers was that everyone in the hall had already heard this line. The promise had been that there would be more details at autumn conference about how the Conservative leadership wants to shape Britain’s relationship with Europe. Instead delegates heard a line that the Prime Minister used as far back as July.
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