Teatime newslinks for Friday 9th December 2011

DAVID CAMERON'S EU VETO

• What the PM really asked for: "Let’s be clear about this: what David Cameron tried to do in Brussels wasn’t merely to try to safeguard Britain’s financial services. He just attempted to repatriate powers which have already legally been transferred to Europe ...The issue is that for some time Brussels has been allowed, legally, to impose regulations on and supervise the City through qualified majority voting (QMV) ... Brussels has tended, in practice, to steer clear of imposing new rules on countries’ key industries by QMV. ... The fear, however, is that Europe was increasingly looking as if it was going to ignore these long-standing conventions" - Sky News' Ed Conway
• EU suffers worst split in history as David Cameron blocks treaty change - Daily Telegraph
• Right now, 'isolated' is a damn good thing for Britain to be - Charles Crawford
• "The leaders of France and Germany have more or less bulldozed Britain out of the European Union for the sake of a treaty that offers absolutely no solution to the crisis at hand, or indeed any future crisis." - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
• Anthony Browne: The creation of a 26-member Fiscal Union will make it much harder for Britain to stay in the European Union
• Andrew Lilico: A few questions about our new European arrangements
• Bernard Jenkin MP on Comment: The EU was free to try to resolve the Euro crisis without clobbering the City of London

TORIES SUPPORTIVE OF CAMERON'S STANCE

• David Davis MP: "David Cameron has done exactly the right thing. The British government demands were utterly reasonable."
• Lord Tebbit: "David Cameron has done the right thing. By refusing to sign up to changes in the Treaty of Rome (which is now, after amendments, really the Treaty of Lisbon) the Prime Minister has adopted the policy which, in a conversation with Giscard d'Estaing, I described as “getting the British dog out of the European federal manger”"
• Douglas Carswell MP: "The events in Brussels show that we have changed direction. We have got a long way to go, but I think people will be supportive of David Cameron for doing the right thing."
• All from ConHome's rolling blog of Conservative reaction to Cameron's EU veto
• John Baron MP on Comment: The Prime Minister must seize the moment and recast our relationship with the EU forever
• James Forsyth: "Looking at the British political scene today, David Cameron is in a very strong position. His own party has rarely been happier with him."
• ToryDiary: Cameron's big opportunity to bring the Conservative family together

WHERE ARE THE LIB DEMS?

• The FT's Kiran Stacey has details on why Lib Dem MPs are keeping quiet: "unlike on some issues, they trust Clegg completely when it comes to Europe. As a former MEP who received his political education at Bruges’ College of Europe, he has impeccable pro-European credentials. Quite simply, most MPs think, “If Nick agrees, that’s good enough for me.”" - FT
• The Guardian's Michael White: "If there are any Lib Dem ministers unhappy with the coalition, fired up with principle or ambition, now would be the time to "do a Robin Cook" and resign with maximum impact." - Guardian
• But one Lib Dem has found his voice: Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, the former Tory. He writes: "The outcome of the failure of the EU summit to reach agreement as 27 was a triumph for the Eurosceptics, but it also showed up Britain's two top Conservatives - prime minister David Cameron and his undeclared rival London mayor Boris Johnson - as what my father - himself an old Etonian - would have called 'spivs'."
• WATCH: Vince Cable insists that both Tories and Lib Dems are committed to continuing membership of EU

MEANWHILE... THE EUROZONE CRISIS RUMBLES ON

• "European stocks climbed, trimming a weekly decline for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, after a report said China’s central bank plans to set up $300 billion of funds to invest overseas." - Bloomberg
• "As euro-zone leaders discuss whether to impose penalties on heavily indebted member countries that break certain fiscal limits, Spain's experience shows why more centralized supervision of governments' budgets is unlikely to address some key economic problems plaguing the currency bloc and undermining investor confidence." - WSJ

OTHER POLITICAL NEWS

• "The controversial head of the UK tax authority - Dave Hartnett - will retire in the summer of 2012, HM Revenue and Customs announces." - BBC
• "Former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has criticised ex-prime minister Gordon Brown and his successor for failing to tackle data theft." - BBC