Q: "Is Euroscepticism dead?" A:"No! Manifestly not!" We appear shortly to be going to elect the most Eurosceptic government since at least the period 1987-90, and probably ever. In what sense does that make Euroscepticism "dead"?
I find much of the cynical posting about how Cameron is bound to just become a Europhile once he's in power or that he can't actually do anything plain absurd. What makes you imagine that a Eurosceptic government couldn't deliver? Since we joined the EU we have had the Europhilia of Heath, the Euroscepticism of Wilson (leading to a referendum), the brief chaos of Callaghan, the moderate Euroscepticism of Thatcher 1979-86 - which was very productive from the British point of view, delivering us a rebate and the Single European Act - the more aggressive Euroscepticism of 1987-90 (which delayed movement towards political integration) - then the Europhile administrations of Major, Blair and Brown.
So, the two clearly Eurosceptic administrations we've had have delivered a referendum on Membership, a rebate to the UK and the Single European Act. It seems to me that the idea that a Eurosceptic Cameron administration will be well-placed to deliver Eurosceptics much of what we want. And I haven't seen anything other than self-indulgent nihilism on offer as a counter-opinion.
