In discussing the government's decision not to seek any repatriation of powers from the EU - to let matters rest there where they lay post-Lisbon, despite the Conservative Party's having made undertaking after undertaking over the past thirteen years to repatriate powers in this area after that, Evan Davis asked the right question this morning:
Do you regret raising expectations on this issue as a party: going around, barnstorming around...talking about getting powers back - it's not really going to be achieved, is it?
Perhaps it's all some cunning ruse, and Cameron is secretly plotting how to draw our EU partners sufficiently far into committing to another Treaty that when he launches his demands for renegotiation they will not be able to refuse. But, in reality, it appears that when Labour said our Eurosceptic promises were all hot air, they were right; that when Heseltine said that in government every Conservative Prime Minister is Europhile, he was right; that when UKIP said Conservatives were not to be trusted on Europe, they were right; that when I and others said that the Conservative Party had changed, and that Cameron and Hague were genuinely convicted Eurosceptics who understood what must be done and would not let us down, we were wrong.
There will be consequences.
