Lest we forget: When Dave asked ‘What’s the point of the EU?’
he WAS the figurehead of the campaign to keep Britain in the eU, delivering dire warnings of economic doom over Brexit. But there was a time when David Cameron was prepared to take Brussels to task over its flaws. Five years ago yesterday, far from appearing an arch-Remainer, the then-PM delivered a remarkable critique of the eU – warning it was seen ‘as something that is done to people rather than acting on their behalf’. As he promised a referendum at Bloomberg’s offices in 2013, Mr Cameron said many felt the eU was ‘heading in a direction that they never signed up to’ and Britons ‘wonder what the point of it all is’. Mr Cameron also pledged to renegotiate Britain’s eU membership and return powers to Westminster. The speech sent shockwaves through europe as he declared that Britain rejected the eU’s founding principle of ‘ever closer union’.
Mr Cameron warned: ‘More of the same will not secure a long-term future for the eurozone. More of the same will not see the european Union keeping pace with the new powerhouse economies. More of the same will not bring the european Union any closer to its citizens.
‘More of the same will just produce more of the same – less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.’
In a forerunner to Project Fear, his then-deputy Nick Clegg claimed a vote would bring ‘years of uncertainty’ over the economy.
Mr Cameron refused to say whether he would back leaving the eU if his renegotiation failed. Three years later he was fervently behind the Remain campaign as Britons voted to break free from Brussels.
FIVE years ago yesterday, David Cameron delivered his historic speech at the offices of financial conglomerate Bloomberg, in which he promised voters would decide on our EU membership – and so changed British politics for ever.
In the tumult since, we’ve seen not only the Brexit referendum, followed swiftly by the then prime minister’s resignation, but two general elections.
But one thing has remained constant: Mr Cameron’s professed reasons for calling the vote remain as valid today as on the day he spelled them out – indeed, even more so.
Without ‘ fundamental, far- reaching change’, he said, the Brussels bloc was doomed to become ever less competitive and more distant from its citizens.
‘People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to,’ he said. ‘They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation…
‘People also feel that the EU is now heading for a level of political integration that is far outside Britain’s comfort zone.’
In the years since Mr Cameron spoke, everything he warned about the EU’s drive for ever-closer integration and its citizens’ alienation from Brussels has come about. Indeed, it is evident in every word JeanClaude Juncker utters, and in the rise of extreme nationalism on the continent.
In complete contrast, Mr Cameron’s hysterical predictions of Armageddon after a Brexit vote have signally failed to come true. In fact, UK employment and export orders are at record highs, the pound has recovered to its pre-referendum level against the dollar and the public finances are in their best shape for years.
Whisper it softly, but at this rate the Brexit bonus may bring enough to keep the Leave campaign’s controversial pledge of substantial extra funding for the NHS.
In his Bloomberg speech, Mr Cameron declared: ‘It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics.’
That question is now settled. Will Remoaners ever get the message – and start rooting for Britain?