14 June 2006

Getting it wrong

Mr Cameron is making a big mistake. The Times reports:
"DAVID CAMERON has snubbed Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, by refusing to attend important talks with right-of-centre EU party leaders tomorrow.
Ten prime ministers and 15 party leaders, including Frau Merkel, the most powerful political figure in Europe, will attend the talks at the traditional eve-of-EU summit gathering at Meise Castle outside Brussels. It is being hosted by the European People’s Party, a family of right-wing national political parties that Mr Cameron has promised to leave because it is too federalist.
Among the other guests are Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister and Presidential hopeful, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
This is the second time Mr Cameron has refused to attend the meeting since becoming leader, leading to accusations from them that he is isolationist."

Failing to attend does few favours, either to the Tories or to the UK generally. Mr Cameron would not have been expected to give any firm commitments at this meeting; nor would he have been obliged to do anything that might upset the rabid europhobes in his party. But he might have learned a lot - and might have been able to set the scene for an influential role in future. He would have been courted by his European counterparts; he could have played the role as a young, fresh, friendly, open-minded counterweight to the euro-sceptic Mr Brown. Instead, Mr Cameron has needlessly offended Frau Merkel and M Sarkozy.

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