Spare us yet another Brussels pantomime
AS David Cameron flies off to Brussels to plead for concessions from our EU partners, this paper has a deep sense of foreboding over the charade we may be about to witness.
Indeed, the Government’s spin doctors already appear to be cranking into action to soften up public opinion for a deal to be finalised by February and a referendum that may come as early as next June.
Yesterday came the curtain-raiser, as the BBC allowed former prime minister Sir John Major to indulge, unchallenged, in frankly histrionic scaremongering over the fate he claimed we would suffer if we voted to leave.
Meanwhile, if our fears prove correct, the Brussels pantomime awaiting us will follow a wearily familiar script, played out a dozen times in the past.
First, the stage-managed rows, with a show of intransigence on both sides. Next, the dramatic talks, dragging on late into the night. Finally, the ‘breakthrough’ – an all-but meaningless concession, to be hailed as a triumph for Britain and a crushing defeat for the unaccountable, corrupt and statist EU empire-builders.
If this is the plan, no wonder Mr Cameron and the ‘remain’ campaigners seem anxious to bring the date of the referendum forward, leaving as little time as possible for voters to study the deal.
And isn’t there another, deeply cynical reason for favouring June – to get the vote out of the way before the summer peak of migration fills our TV screens once again with migrants by the million, graphically reminding voters of the perils of the EU’s free movement rules?
Indeed, this paper believes it would be profoundly wrong to rush the debate, as Mr Cameron seems determined to do, on an issue of such immense significance to Britain, our children and grandchildren.
Above all, we advise the closest possible scrutiny of anything the EU may offer – whether a temporary ‘emergency brake’ on migration within the Union or some form of concession over migrants’ access to benefits.
As we have said before, Mr Cameron is demanding pathetically little from our partners. And if they’re true to past form, they will be willing to concede even less.