If David Cameron were to divide Europe up, he’d make some crude distinctions. There would be the basket cases, like Italy, Spain, Greece, France — examples, by and large, of how countries should not be run. Then there’d be the former Soviet bloc, sceptical about Brussels because they recently escaped a remote, controlling bureaucracy and don’t want to repeat the experience. Then come the good guys, the people with whom he intends to reshape the continent: the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandis. This is the group that the Prime Minister has started referring to as his ‘Northern Alliance’.
Mr Cameron has, until now, had little interest in the machinations of the European Union. To him, politics is primarily social — so he makes alliances by making friends. When François Hollande turned up for a visit, he was taken down to the pub and served a ploughman’s lunch. Angela Merkel, by contrast, is being treated like a homecoming empress.
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