One of the most striking things about Lib Dem conference has been how up for a scrap
over Europe the party’s ministers are. Every single Lib Dem Cabinet minister has, over the past few days, ruled out any attempt to repatriate powers from Brussels.
Given that the Conservative party wouldn’t forgive David Cameron not attempting to use any new treaty negotiation to try and regain control of various issues (see David’s blog from earlier), this puts the Prime Minister in quite a dilemma. Personally, I expect Cameron will go for the repatriation of powers. The AV referendum showed that when he has to choose between really angering his party or the Liberal Democrats, he crosses his coalition partners. But what I expect the Liberal Democrats are trying to do with their current positioning is to try and limit the number of powers Cameron attempts to repatriate.
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