TO GRASP the trick David Cameron is trying to pull off by renegotiating Britain’s membership of the EU and winning an in-out referendum, imagine him edging along a mountain path, a wall of rock on one side and a long drop on the other. As Westminster returns from its recess, that path—the scope for a deal that mollifies the Conservative party’s Eurosceptics, satisfies voters and is palatable to Britain’s European allies—is narrowing.
The prime minister has been touring Europe over the summer, buttering up fellow leaders ahead of a summit in December at which he plans to present his requests. Yet this experience has forced him to curb them. On August 31st it transpired that he had given up demanding British opt-outs from EU employment regulations (concessions Brussels and Paris are unwilling to grant). Then Werner Faymann, Austria’s chancellor, warned that Britain should take in more refugees if it wanted a hearing for its “catalogue of demands”. His comments were echoed in Berlin.
Mr Cameron also faced tribulations at home. On September 1st the Electoral Commission decreed that the planned question for the referendum was...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Le wobble
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