Britain's Chance To Escape The European Union

Source: What Is That Whistling Sound

Cameron’s Final Gamble

Having struck a deal in Brussels with fellow EU leaders that allows the U.K. to to cut some welfare payments to migrants from inside the bloc, the prime minister will return to London and put the result to his cabinet Saturday morning. He’s betting only a few ministers will announce they’re going to take the opposite side from him in the coming referendum battle and campaign for the U.K. to leave.

That’s the first in a series of ways Cameron’s high-stakes strategy could go wrong over the next four months. He’s also calculated that opposition to EU membership from many of Britain’s newspapers won’t shift many votes; that the anti-establishment mood among much of the electorate won’t turn voters off a campaign spearheaded by the prime minister and the leaders of other mainstream parties; and that a surge in refugees entering Europe from Syria won’t put off Britons already worried by rising immigration.

Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling, and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers have also been longstanding opponents of EU membership. None commands widespread public recognition, while Gove alienated many teachers and parents when he was education secretary. A bigger name, like Johnson, Javid or Home Secretary Theresa May, could be enough to unite the fighting “Leave” campaigns and shift the argument.

That’s why politicians who want to see the U.K. stay in the EU think Cameron has miscalculated this time. Wes Streeting, an opposition Labour member of Parliament, is predicting a narrow win for the “Leave” side. The latest poll, published Friday by TNS, showed a 3 percentage-point lead for “Leave” with 25 percent of respondents undecided.

“This feels like a country sleepwalking towards Brexit,” Streeting said in an interview. “There’s a vacuum where there should be strong political leadership making the ‘In’ case.” 

My view:

Out of touch leadership in Britain is likely to result in the first real step in the dissolution of the European Union.  The pathological state’s wrong headed policies have build up so much voter resentment, that the Leave group has referendum momentum.  Out of control migration may drive the final nail in the coffin of the Utopian socialist vision.