David Cameron is acting in a principled way over Juncker – so let’s back him

It’s pretty rich hearing the Labour Party criticize Cameron for taking a principled stance on Europe. How vulgar, they say, how amateur. Doesn’t he know that the job is to (as Douglas Alexander put it yesterday) ‘balance’ domestic interests and European ambitions?

When I thought that Cameron was following Labour’s ‘sophisticated’ approach – ie, being sellouts – I lambasted him. I had egg on my face pretty quickly: my Telegraph column was published on the day that he said ‘no’ to the Eurozone deal. In my defence, he had set out to sellout – he’d wanted to take a figleaf of protection from the French. Sarkozy denied him that, as it suited his domestic purposes to be seen to sock it to Les Anglo-Saxons who he blamed for starting the crash. But Cameron learned his lesson: double-dealing is an integral part of these Brussels negotiations that he has come to loathe.