european union

I’ve listened to what Mr Cameron has had to say about renegotiating about the terms of Britain’s EU membership and, frankly, I find it all incredibly depressing.

One of the founding objectives of the European Union was to create an “ever-closer union”. Under the Coalition Government (which, as far as the EU is concerned, has caused huge disagreements between the LibDems and the Conservatives), Cameron has been distancing himself from the principle EU member countries and yet has still been trying dictate policy from the sidelines. Yes, I appreciate that there are many EU policies that Britain would ideally like to change but, surely, you are in a far stronger position to argue your case from the position as a “full” team member. Cameron has declared that creating “an ever-closer union” is NOT the objective for Britain. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of other EU leaders are adamant that they will not allow Britain to “cherry pick” terms – and I don’t blame them in the slightest!   
I rather like the French foreign minister’s comments (as reported in The Guardian) on the matter: "You can't do Europe à la carte… I'll take an example which our British friends will understand. Let's imagine Europe is a football club and you join. Once you're in it you can't say: 'Let's play rugby'."
Clearly, Cameron’s latest remarks will be music to the ears of the majority of his Tory colleagues. The whole affair makes me want to shout “CAMERON DOES NOT TALK FOR ME!” from the rooftops!
As far as I’m concerned, the worst-case scenario would be for the Tories to win the next election outright and for an “In or Out” referendum on the EU to be called. Sadly, I firmly believe that the British public would vote to leave the EU (you can just imagine “The Sun”, “Daily Mail” and “Telegraph” newspapers coming up with all sorts of bigoted headlines as to why we should quit). To my mind, this feels rather like us allowing the British public to vote on reintroducing the death penalty… frighteningly, the public would no doubt vote for its return(?).
Yes, I know, I’m fast becoming someone who doesn’t even believe in the democratic process! How pathetic is that?
“I’m all favour of things I agree with”… you sad, sad man.