Why David Cameron can’t copy Harold Wilson on EU renegotiation

It’s at times like this I’m glad I’m not a Europhile. I imagine that Lord Lawson’s article in today’s Times is causing Brussels-lovers up and down the land a number of headaches this afternoon, not least because it is incredibly detailed and hard to find fault with: The EU’s desire for ‘ever-closer union’ is undiminished? Accurate. British businesses are being hindered by the EU’s daft regulations? Very true. We need to start looking beyond Europe for growth opportunities? Another tick. From a purely economic perspective, Lord Lawson’s argument is spot on.

However, there is a political problem with Lawson’s article which I can’t seem to get my head around – why can’t we try to renegotiate our way of these meddlesome directives? Why is the only answer full on Out? According to Lawson we shouldn’t humour the idea of renegotiation as ‘any changes that Mr Cameron — or, for that matter, Ed Miliband — is able to secure will be equally inconsequential’.