I shall just post two lines here to indicate my own reaction as a European citizen committed to the creation of a European Union.
One, I'm horrified at the chauvinistic, nationalistic tone: he and his Conservative Party are straight out of the darkest pseudo-patriotic years of European History. This denial of European values is the kind of mentality that has caused the two World Wars. As long as Britannia Rules the Waves for the British, Europe has no chance.
A real throwback to a darker age.
The UK wants access to the lucrative European market (500 million people!) but will not give up anything in return to get access.
It's all take and no give.
This attitude is all the more remarkable that if the UK persists and a referendum is set up on the simple question, as Cameron put it, of an in/out option, and the British Euro-skeptics win - well, it will be Britain itself that will hurt the most, in particular the City...
Two, this seriously raises the question whether the UK has any right to stay in the EU. The experience so far with British membership has not been encouraging, to say the least. The UK has always acted as a break whenever there was a need to move forward.
Indeed, the UK's geopolitical allegiances are Atlantic, not European: the UK feels closer to the United States (same language, same culture) than to Germany or France even though they are next door neighbors. Undoubtedly the combined result of History and Geography: after all the UK is an island and it has a tendency to drift away from the continent...Historically, British diplomacy has always focused on pitting one European country against the other as a way to preserve its own freedom and integrity.
Moreover, at the practical level of the Brussels secretariat, the British are already disengaging themselves: an ever dwindling number of young Brits join the European bureaucracy, they just don't see it as a career for themselves. Politically too, the UK has operated on a downward spiral with its European partners and is no longer able to obtain important positions within the European Commission. At the moment, the highest position held by a Brit is Catherine Ashton's as the "High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy" - a mouthful to say that she should act as the EU's Foreign Affairs Minister...but in fact, she still doesn't. She is constantly relegated in the background. The last time we heard of her was when she made a statement on Gaza in November 2012...
Your opinion? Should the UK opt in or out? And if by chance it stays in, is there hope that it will be finally committed to building Europe?
Related articles
PM: I want the European Union to be a success(itv.com)
European leaders slam Cameron's EU comments(aljazeera.com)
Reaction to Cameron's EU speech: 'A politics of cherry-picking will not work'(guardian.co.uk)
Guy Verhofstadt calls David Cameron 'a madman'. Britain should not have to listen to sneering Eurofederalists(blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
Comments
In times past, America benefited by adopting Europeans of all varieties, seeking to escape its moribund past. People came here longing to be Americans. They cast off old languages and habits. Most, like my father, altered his family name to sound more American (Well, at least "Durish" sounds less European than "Dzurisin").
Unfortunately, we have a political/ideological class that now vilifies "individual exceptionalism" and trumpets "collectivism" (see Obama's 2nd Inaugural Address). The President didn't invent the new agenda, he merely exemplifies it. America has been laboring under a progressively expanding spirit of collectivism that began about 100 years ago, and the nation has progressively surrendered its prosperity along with its liberties. Yes, we may qualify for membership in the European Union ourselves one day soon.
How would y'all like that?
As for Cameron - no one would have to guess at my view. He leads a weak government which has to pander to the extremists in his own party. I wrote recently myself that "Britain Waives The Rules". Anyone who does not want to be a full part of Europe has failed to understand its history and the place of the UK in that picture. The culture of the European peoples is our very own.For the UK to leave the community would be to turn their back on their own family. The enemies are not our divisions but those who seek (for their own ends) to divide us.