CAMERON'S EU PLEDGE JUST A CON TRICK.

So David Cameron has finally made his long-awaited speech about the European Union and the UK's position in it - or out of it.

 

Members of the Conservative party seem to be very happy with his apparent committment to hold a simple 'in / out' referendum sometime in 2018, but this date really is far too distant for Cameron's words to hold much water. There are too many imponderables raised by his speech for anyone to draw any real meaning from it.

 

Will Cameron be in a position to carry out his pledge in 2018 ? Will he still be Prime Minister or, indeed, even leader of his party by then ? Precisely what will be renegotiated ? What will count as 'success' in any negotiations ? What will happen if Scotland votes for independence in its own referendum ? Etc., etc.

 

Cameron is actually running scared of both his own MPs and UKIP and that's the only reason for his speech. He has no intention whatsoever of really giving us an opportunity of a fair unbiased vote as whatever the outcome of his 'renegotiations' he would claim a huge success and campaign vigorously to stay in this corrupt club. The Liberal Democrats and Labour parties will do the same and we'll be left with exactly the same situation as we had back in 1975 - the Government and major parties all on one side while a relatively small number of right wing Tories and UKIP would be on the other. Campaigning would be skewed strongly in favour of a vote to stay in, mainly because that is the option that most politicians prefer; after all, it is the option that offers them the chance of an alternative career and lots of 'jollies' all at the tax payer's expense.

 

Given that Cameron's chances of still being PM after the 2015 election are slim, most of the above is probably nothing but pointless conjecture. Even if he does somehow hold on to office, it's still more than 2 years to the election  and a further 3 before he would have to fullfil his committment. Harold Wilson famously said that "a week is a long time in politics"; on that scale, 5 years is an eternity. Cameron's speech has meaning for the moment and, perhaps, for the next week or two; beyond that it has no meaning other than as an attempt to safeguard his own position and we all know how precarious can be the positions of political figures.

 

For anyone who really wants to see a change in the relationship between the UK and EU, there is only one option - vote UKIP. Firstly in next year's European elections and then in the General Election of 2015. Forget Cameron's promises, he's already shown himself to be as slippery as any of them when it comes to finding ways out of sticking to them and this will be no different.