15 October 2012...will we remain a member?
The pressure is building for a renegotiation that will result in the UK getting back sovereignty. In addition developments inside the EU itself make it ever more likely that we will exit and it could happen sooner than many think.
The big question really is not whether we will get out but what our relationship will be with the EU once we are out. This is an important matter simply because any renegotiated terms will have to be subject to a referendum.
Michael Gove is the latest Minister reported to be in favour of a tough line on the EU and he is one of Cameron's closest allies. I previously thought that Cameron would prepare the way for us to get out while his eventual successor as a Conservative PM would be the one to get us out. Perhaps I was too pessimistic in that. The anti-EU pressure keeps on building inside and outside of government.
The sooner this boil is lanced and we get out the better but, to what?
Grand isolation is not the way and besides, a straight In/Out referendum will just result in a win for the status quo leaving us locked into the EU dictatorship forever. I have said it before, the ideal arrangement for the UK would mirror the Swiss model and it is that which should be the target for any renegotiation and is the choice that needs to be put to the British people. A series of bi-lateral arrangements of treaties on areas in which the UK has a common interest with the EU is the way forward, not membership, as is the way between to independent sovereign states.
all the above are to the benefit of all europeans, if a referendum got an "out" result none of the afore mentioned should be affected.