The Risk of Brexit - The Politics of a Referendum (Bookzcity)

Further Details About This Book:

This short book is an up-to-the-minute political analysis of the Conservative government’s European policy. As David Cameron put it to the House of Commons in July 2015, we have a clear strategy for “reform, renegotiation and referendum”. The pledge in the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 general election was unequivocal:

We will negotiate a new settlement for Britain in Europe, and then ask the British people whether they want to stay in the EU on this reformed basis or leave. David Cameron has committed that he will only lead a government that offers an in-out referendum. We will hold that referendum before the end of 2017 and respect the outcome.1

The author has deep personal reservations about the wisdom of Cameron’s policy. I have argued that holding a referendum on Europe is a reckless gamble with Britain’s future. I am not so foolish as to argue that the British public are closet Euro-enthusiasts: scepticism runs alarmingly deep. In my earlier book The Europe Dilemma2 I sought to explain why this scepticism was so deep-seated in the British psyche. On the basis of my experience as an adviser in 10 Downing Street and then at the European commission, I went on to analyse why the Blair governments failed in their ambition to end Britain’s semi-detachedness from the EU. The failings of