Kenneth Clarke: worried

EXTRACT: Of course, within the Conservative Party there is a substantial rump of far-right and plain loony MPs, content to peddle endless xenophobic gibberish - especially after a good lunch. Such pathetic, nationalist drivel, needless to say, attracts significant grassroots support and - alas - strikes a certain resonance with a section of the British populace. Nor is the excitement confined to the Tory and tabloid press. Doubtlessly the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain and others will use the speech as an opportunity to promote their noxious national socialist agenda of withdrawing from the European Union ‘capitalist club’ but remaining within the United Kingdom ‘capitalist club’.

Cameron is walking a tightrope. He could easily end up pleasing nobody but upsetting virtually everybody. Many Eurosceptic backbenchers want a simple in/out referendum on continued UK membership of the EU, preferably sooner rather than later. Unless adverse political circumstances presented him with almost no choice, it seems extremely unlikely that Cameron would go down that particular path, but he has to throw “the bastards” (as John Major memorably and not inaccurately called them) some juicy red meat to stop them going for his throat.

Therefore Cameron promises to hold a referendum on a “new EU settlement” if the Tories are elected with a majority in 2015. This will entail “renegotiating” London’s terms of membership or the “repatriation” of certain powers if there are any revisions to the Lisbon treaty - a near certainty considering the beached EU project and the ongoing euro crisis.

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