David Cameron's strange European bedfellows

I just don’t understand David Cameron’s stubbornness over his alliance with his new friends in fringe European parties. Why make a stand for these people? William Hague’s insistence of an apology from David Miliband following his comments at Labour Party conference is plain daft. Miliband may have gone over the top in what he said about Cameron’s new allies. But there’s no way he will withdraw his comments. Why draw attention to the Conservative Party’s connections with these people?

I don’t know if Poland’s Michal Kaminski really is an anti-Semite or a homophobe or whether he was a member of a neo-fascist group in his youth. Everything David Miliband said about him may be a smear. But in terms of raw political pragmatism, why not just opt for the safer bet of the centre-right European People’s Party group in the European parliament? if you really want to persuade people you are on the centre ground of British politics then why not hang out with politicians on the mainstream right in Europe?