Update: The United Kingdom and the Eurozone crisis

David Cameron’s threat today to veto any new EU treaty (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16048131) confirms the worst.  Of course he is right to defend the United Kingdom’s interests and not to sign any treaty that does not accord with our interests (although as he is not a head of state, signing is above his pay grade), but that is what each of the 27 EU heads of government will be doing.  No head of government would negotiate against their national interest.  So, there was no need for the UK’s prime minister to issue his threat today and making threats always makes it harder to ahieve what you set out to achieve.

David Cameron is not naive and will know he places the UK in danger by making his threat.  Does he have another purpose, to wreck the negotiations from the outset and prevent the resolution to the Eurozone crisis proposed by President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel in Paris yesterday?  It seems likely.  Doing that, he is placing this country in great peril and should resign.

The deputy prime minister should be exercising the restraint on the prime minister that the Tory right wing is frothing at the mouth about.  The Liberal Democrats are the party that best understands the EU and has most faith in Britain’s future within it.  It’s time for Nick Clegg to take the lead.