Meanwhile, in the UK…
The House of Commons fired a shot across the bow at Prime Minister David Cameron. His push for a real dollar freeze on the European Union budget was rejected as…too spendthrift (Spectator Coffee House, emphasis added):
The government has just suffered an embarrassing defeat on the EU budget. The rebel amendment, which called for a cut rather than the real terms freeze David Cameron is proposing, passed by 307 votes to 294.
It turns out that 53 Conservatives bucked Cameron to back the amendment (that includes the amendment’s author, Mark Reckless). More interestingly, the Labour Party joined them. Now, it’s likely Labour was just looking to embarrass Cameron, but doing the right thing for the wrong reasons still gets the right thing done. In this case, the elected branch of the British Parliament just told Europe it want a cut in the EU budget.
More importantly, it is now perfectly clear to the entire continent that the British people are not happy with the Eurocracy. If Labour didn’t think the people were behing cutting the EU budget, they never would have voted for it. Even if it were a “near run thing,” Labour would have likely gone with their socialist Europhilic friends. That they went the euroskeptic route shows they see votes to mine – a lot of them.
The next step is up to Cameron. He can play the political game, and decry Labour for its opportunism…or he can take this statement from Parliament to the Eurocrats and demand reductions. The ball is now in his court – and if he plays it right, he can snap Brussels back to reality. Otherwise, a British exit from the EU becomes much more likely – and justifiable.
You can go back to obsessing over Ohio now.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
One Response to “Meanwhile, in the UK…”
I will be interested to see how the next UK general election plays out. I think the Lib Dems have been reluctant to bring down the coalition (as they will most likely lose some seats to Labour the next go-around) but I don’t know if the Tories would be able to win an overall majority on their own. I like Cameron (much better than Gordon Brown and certainly better than Ed Milliband as well) but I think he’s caught between a rock and hard place, especially on the issue of Europe. The UK likes to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to the EU.
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