In response to David Keighley: Eurosceptic Tories have been duped into swallowing Cameron’s continental stitch-up, EppingBlogger wrote:
The term “Conservative Eurosceptic” has always been an oddity. It literally means that they are unsure what they think of the EU; Enoch would have had a lot of fun with that. What it usually means is they are a bit uneasy and think it cannot be right to have foreign bureaucrats telling us what to do, especially when some of their constituents start voting Ukip.
There cannot have been any doubt about how Cameron would deal with this issue. We know he cannot achieve material change, certainly not enough to satisfy Ukip or those with principled objections to political integration or serious concern about the effect of directives and regulations on UK business interests. It has been clear that Cameron wants to stay in the EU regardless of terms, save only that he could persuade the voters to return him as PM; that’s been done so he will now follow the usual route for the Tory party and facilitate the EU’s business.
Anyone who claims to be surprised by Cameron’s plan should leave public life. The Conservative Party has been an anger sink on EU issues for decades and this time round everyone interested in the issue had no excuse for being deceived.
