The most damaging element of Lord Lawson’s intervention on Europe in today’s Times is not so much his decision that the facts have changed and that he would vote to leave the European Union in a post-2015 referendum, but his lack of faith in David Cameron’s ability to secure any notable reforms. He writes:
‘We have been here before. He is following faithfully in the footsteps of Harold Wilson almost 40 years ago. The changes that Wilson was able to negotiate were so trivial that I doubt if anyone today can remember what they were. But he was able to secure a 2-1 majority for the ‘in’ vote in the 1975 referendum.
‘I have no doubt that any changes that Mr Cameron – or, for that matter, Ed Miliband – is able to secure will be equally inconsequential.’
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Cameron is well aware of the dangers of over-promising, which is why, although he has started talks on renegotiation with other European leaders, he hasn’t offered a ‘shopping list’ of the changes that he wants.
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