Europe will end David Cameron's political career

Poor old David Cameron has never been blessed with attractive options on the European front. But for a while it was possible to suppose that it might not ruin his career to anything like the degree it helped to scupper the ministries of John Major and Margaret Thatcher. That pretence is over, however. There’s a storm coming and Cameron will be shipwrecked on the Belgian coast and that will be that.

A few months ago I suggested that all the talk of Tory “unity” on the European question was so much hogwash. The best that could be said was that all these clever ploys and stratagems for renegotiating Britain’s membership of the EU had bought Cameron a little time. But only a little. The relief could only be temporary, however, not least because a large part of Cameron’s party want the Prime Minister’s preferred policy to fail.