THEY'RE ANGLOS, NOT EUROPEANS:

Great Britain Saves Itself by Rejecting the EU: The French and Germans may howl with outrage, but David Cameron did the right thing in pulling up the drawbridge to a continent on the verge of collapse (Niall Ferguson, 12/09/11, Daily Beast)

To listen to some conservative commentary in London on Friday, you would think the British Prime Minister David Cameron just morphed into Winston Churchill, valiantly upholding England's ancient liberties against German aggression. In fact, what happened in Europe this week was nothing so grandiose.

David Cameron's refusal to back a Franco-German plan to revise the European Union treaty was the culmination of a consistent Conservative policy, dating back to Margaret Thatcher and continued under John Major. That policy has been to resist any steps taken in the name of European integration that would in practice lead to Britain's becoming a member of a federal Europe.

Cameron is not--despite the opprobrium that has been heaped on his head by everyone from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander--a pathologically insular Little Englander. Like Margaret Thatcher, he believes in the single European market. Like John Major, he opposes British membership of the European monetary union. As over the Schengen Agreements on passport-free travel, as over the euro, Britain has once again reserved its right to retain sovereignty over key areas of policy.

It's an opportune moment for the UR to offer them admission to NAFTA.

Posted by oj at December 10, 2011 5:13 AM
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