Cameron prepares for the Brussels offensive

Holly ......

Can't wait to hear some of the comments on this post.

Holly ......

Coalition gets a bit of an upper hand so lets P everyone off with Europe.
So predictable,So boring.

Liberty

I cannot understand why our governments accept the authority of the EU. There is nothing the EU does that our government cannot do better. If we want to buy food from France we just do it; if we want our fishing policed we can do that too and all of it would be a lot simpler, better done and more profitable and put the government in the driving seat doing things for us and they can enjoy the power and autonomy. Heath, Wilson, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and now Cameron are all besotted with the EU. Why?

Verity

David, your headline ... is that that "irony" thingy?

Rhoda Klapp

"Cameron will conciliate rather than confront"

Google translate from coalition to colloquial english gives this as 'Cameron will fold like wet cardboard'.

NeilMc

Alas, whilst even the watered down version of what the voters want sounds easily obtained in this situation, Cameron has proven himself to be euro-centred and will thus renege upon all his supposed demands.

Has there been one pledge that has been honoured.

I, like most people I know, held my nose and voted for him. Never again.

Marcher Baron

"he knows that a UK Sovereignty Bill and exemption from pan-European customs arrangements are unfeasible unless Britain rescinds its membership" while those of us who pay the bills know that we won't get anywhere with repatriating powers unless Britain does rescind its membership.

dorothy wilson

"Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy hope to introduce a treaty that will deliver tough sanctions on eurozone members that break budget guidelines."

Der Spiegel Online has an article that seems to contradict this. It is headed: "Berlin's Quest for Tough Euro Zone Rules Has 'Failed Spectacularly'". It goes on to argue that Merkel has caved in to Sarkozy over this and quotes extracts from the coverage in the German press. [SpiegelOnLine/Europe].

Verity

Cameron prepares for Brussels offensive

I think the only Brussels offensive most Brits are interested in would be Cameron writing a note to Mme Rumpty Pumpty or whatever her name is (the ugly one) letting her know that Britain is no longer pretending to illegal membership, never put to the electorate for approval or rejection, of the EU as of now.

Anything else Dave says to the EU is just blather and propaganda for his hopes for personal advancement within the undemocratic monster.

John Adlington

I hope he remembers this bit from thye 2010 manifesto:

"We will ensure that by law no future government can hand over areas of power to the EU or join the Euro without a referendum of the British people."

Sue MV

He's not going to battle anyone. How delusional can you be?

He'll lie back and take it like a submissive.

Vulture

Cameron is the rubber duck in Frau Frumpel's bath.

The only 'battle' this Eurocrat will fight in Brussels is who gets second helpings of Moules mariniere. ( And being a gent he will doubtless defer to Frumpel on this too).

To pretend otherwise is dishonest and an insult to Coffee Housers' intelligence.

Liz Brown

Just say No and refuse to implement anything. Refuse to pay and what will Europe do about it? It needs Britain far more than Britain needs the EU. France is an old hand at this game and wins every time - witness Europe folding re the expulsion of the Romas............

In2minds

First - "Cameron will conciliate rather than confront" -
then - "This enables Cameron to be adventurous in negotiation."

I can't see Cameron doing either of these things. This is after all David Cameron the leader of the Tory party and he's going to the EU, that's the European Union. Do remember the EU believe in 'acquis communautaire '.

Tiberius

It would be better if the Cameron-haters waited until he's actually failed over this before they slag him off, but with so little else to whine about I suppose it's understandable.

And after the shafting this country has had over Europe under New Labour, John Major's Maastricht opt-out from the Social Chapter looks like a work of genius.

Cjamesk

DC won't and can't do a thing, it's s case of "I fought our corner..... Sorry" nothing more nothing less just pure spin.

The sooner the EU project fails the better and this won't be down to the "Political Elites" who's beds are well feathered by this un-elected, un-accountable and un-democractic beast, but by the people themselves.

Frank Sutton

a treaty that will deliver tough sanctions on eurozone members that break budget guidelines
What budget guidelines would those be? The ones relating to the EU budget which, as reported elsewhere, is making ever more rapacious demands on member states?
No? Thought not!

TrevorsDen

Agreed Tiberius.

But they do tend to introduce thing by the back door.

MaxHeadroom

The coalition has already said yes in advance to the EIS agreement giving EU police forces powers in Britain.

Before the election the tories had already caved in over the Lisbo constitution/treaty. They also dropped their policy of repatriating control of our fishing grounds.

When we had a prime minister who finally realised what the EU was about, the tories stabbed her in the back.

I don't expect Cameron to do anything but roll over like a limp ragdoll.

Mark Cannon

Mr Cameron should not just "seek practical assurances". They are worthless. Mr Blair traded the certainty of part of our rebate for "practical assurances" about CGT reform. What Mr Cameron should seek is actual results.

TGF UKIP

"Cameron will conciliate" too right he will, he never does owt else. Why on earth would there be the remotest possibility of him standing up to Sarkozy and Merkel when he could not and would not take on Brown and Labour.

In2minds

"Cameron-haters" - love Cameron love the referendum, ha!

paulg

Well, don't forget to tell him not to come back if he surrenders an inch.

The Germans want economic hegemony, you can concede that as it does not affect us. But for that, Cameron better get all the opt outs we want: and our money back.

Verityred

Well some of the tension releasing replies from the usual bulging eyed UKIP ish headbangers have at least spared their wives the nightly beating.

Every cloud..

The Huntsman

"conciliate rather than confront.....the ground is in his favour"

And which planet do you live on exactly, Mr. Blackburn?

Why, pray, would the EuroPolitBuro spend fifty years getting where it is merely meekly to hand it all back to a triumphant Dave?

Barking, absolutely barking.......

Verity

Cameron's a vicious coward. So's Osborne. So's anyone who was a Bullingdon Boy whose purpose was to get drunk and wreck the premises of people who had put those premises together, thought about the decor, thought about the carpet thought about the furniture, thought about the lighting, thought about the rest rooms, and so on. Invested their money in their premises and cared for them, and then a group of oiks with Etonian accents trash everything the proprietors had put together and think it's OK if Daddy sends a nice cheque.

They are no different ... indeed they're worse, than the oiks who throw up in city centres because with them, the destruction and malicious behaviour was deliberate.

strapworld

Welcome back Huntsman and well said.

Cameron a fighter? come on, pull the other one.

He will return with a piece of paper 'Peace on our time' Cameron is OUR Chamberlain!

AndyLeeds

What a laugh. Having just returned from Greece where they are having a hardtime thanks to their political class one is reminded of EU treaties past. The one which set up the damn Euro included a number of conditions which each country had to meet before it could join this project of the damned. Can someone remind me which of these conditions Greece actually met ?? So much for EU treaties.

michael

What does do with all ones cronies when the Westminster gravy train is running out of steam ?

Foreign climes ?

normanc

Cameron's Brussels offensive will no doubt remind me of Churchill's explanation of what was happening in the Battle of France in May 1940 (the actual fighting was taking place largely in Belgium).

I'm paraphrasing but it went along the lines of:

Yes, the enemy has broken through our front and is fighting in our rear but this also means we have units fighting in his rear.

The fact that our troops were fleeing in a disorganised shambles with no command and control he probably forget in order to mention to keep morale up.

If only the end result was the same: the UK out of Europe!

Archie

Cameron......offensive? Definitely! Stand up to Europe? Er, should I hold my breath, perhaps?

Verity

Even with his lie about giving the electorate a referendum on the EU if he got in, he still couldn't win the election. Then he reached for the crutch of the Coalition, pulling Nick Clegg up off the floor as Clegg was dragged across the carpet of No 10 clinging on to Gordon Brown's ankle.

Good grief!

And this was the loyal, strong leader who was going to accord the populace a referendum in the face of all the powerful people in Brussels who didn't want him to? Did any actually believe him, I wonder? That few did is evidenced by the fact that he couldn't get voted in. Had the electorate believed him, he'd have been swept in on a landslide.

But they didn't. And he wasn't.

Verity

Tiberius writes: "It would be better if the Cameron-haters waited until he's actually failed over this before they slag him off...".

Our way saves time.

yank

Ok, I can't take it anymore. You lot have to be set straight.

The world moves fast, and your government must move just as fast. It's not, imo.

Cameron and the Tories have missed any chance they had to make significant change over there. They seized nothing. They're listening to Cameron's yank electioneering consultants, looking to hover and nudge over small subsets of the electorate, herding them off into electoral bantustans who will each trot off meekly to vote for them, after all their good works are parceled up neatly and fully marketed to the stupes. I've seen this game played before, and it's deadening.

So he's moving spending levels back to 2007 levels of GDP?

That's the big move, Dave?

That's it? All of it?

And even that small spending pause to be purchased with growth stifling increases in tax burden, a continuation of the costly and jobkilling envirowhacko nonsense, and defense cuts that leave you all with critical holes in transport and logistics, not to mention air and sea operations.

And now on TOP of all this, this guy's going over to Europe, hat in hand, to offer up another 5.9% budget increase to a bunch of fussbudget Eurocrat logrollers?

Have you good people over there on the pile of rocks LOST YOUR MINDS?!

Ok, the budget work is done. I don't agree with it, but you do and that's all to the good. But yes, the world moves fast, and don't be surprised if, after that budget is allotted and worked into, it comes clear that another election becomes necessary. Governments need a purpose, and the current purpose is at an end. Does it have another now, besides some Big Society 3-card monte, or the soul-killing Euro fawning? Maybe a little AV referendum distraction?

Get out in front of this. Blow up that chamber, and soon. That's what a parliamentary system is all about, or should be.

I'm still surprised that these sopping wet bastards won such a strong plurality there, with 3rd parties so close at hand. I recognize a strong technocratic bent to them, but now that the need for technocrats is coming to an end... move on. The technocrats can spend out the appropriations under a new government, one more mindful of the nation and the people, and not just the technocracy. 8-10 months... then move.

Major Plonquer 1

The way out of the EU is for the UK to become MORE Marxist, not less. Keep in mind Marx once said, 'I'd never belong to club that would have me as a member'. Apply this philosophy to the EU 'club' and we're shown the true way. Time to get out.

Thank you, Groucho.

Paul Hawkins

Mr Blackburn,
In the interests of clear argument,could you avoid expressions like 'repatriate competencies' They don't help make the point.

Minnie Ovens

Well, Mr Blackburn I hope you and your rose tinted glasses are correct.
So far, however, all I have seen is an eager Europhile engaging in "pragmatism" with the EC.
That means, in proper english, a man who will do anything to assist Brussels but needs a token from them to appear as if he has balls.

Stuart Seacole Smith

I don't care how nicely he does it, but there are a few litmus tests of Cameron's EU policy:

- will he stand firm against a 5.9% EU budget rise when everyone else is cutting theirs? A flat budget should be the target.
- will he fight to maintain a derivative of the budget rebate that keeps British net contributions more or less in line with comparable economies?
- will he fight to keep london as a financial hub?

And the European Parliament is so far removed from the voter that it has no right even to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word democracy. There's got to be a better and cheaper way of doing things.

Other (rather dusty, little known) EU insititutions like the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions serve no useful purpose whatsoever - but they do very efficiently burn taxpayer cash. Both could (should) be closed tomorrow and hardly anyone would even notice. A few steps along these lines, and the EU could credibly argue it has some kind of finger on the pulse, but they won't do it of course.

Rhoda Klapp

Tiberius, nothing could please me more than for Cameron to NOT fold like wet cardboard, I will come on and apologise publicly to him if he does not. But he probably will. Based on forty-odd years of observation, they all do.

Go on, Dave, surprise me.

an ex-tory voter

I do believe Mr Blackburn must be an inhabitant of an entirely different planet. David Cameron has neither kept his word, nor has he taken anything other than an entirely pro EU stance. Leopards do not change their spots. I stand ready to eat my hat!

JR

Cast Iron Dave is not to be trusted he will sell us down the river.

Boudicca

And how, pray, is Cameron preparing for the Brussels offensive? By laying down and practising letting the EU walk all over him and the UK taxpayer!

Let's not pretend he's going to put Britain and British interests first. If he was, he would be giving the electorate the Referendum they want on membership of the EU. Instead, he will bow down to the Poliburo and Brussels apparatchiks and take whatever cr+p they want to throw our way. What was it Cameron said about 'serving us.' Ha-bloody-ha. When it comes to the EU, he is serving France and Germany, not Britain.