I despair. Slowly. Britain's Labour Party for no other reason than to strike a blow that actually hits David Cameron on the nose, betrays whatever political principles it pretends to have to join forces with the rabid right-wing nutters in the Tories and vote for a cut in EU spending which it knows the Prime Minister, who has increasingly isolated himself from whatever allies Britain used to have in the EU, cannot possibly achieve. It is clever politically if you don't mind giving the impression of the purest cynicism, as the result will surely be for Cameron to be more isolated from the bulk of his party. But in terms of Realpolitik it is flawed. Sadly, sadly nobody in British politics, except perhaps Nick Clegg - who has tarnished his own reputation beyond hope of recovery - sees that Britain's attitude towards the rest of Europe (people in Britain no longer say that as we did 20 years ago, instead today everyone says 'Europe' as if it were somewhere far away instead of our own continent) means that it may inevitably drift apart and become a global irrelevance, with nuclear missiles!
Come to think of it that old joke about needing them to 'protect us from the French' may start to be what people really think: to the extent that some Tory europhobe actually threatens to fire them at Calais. The never have understood fallout.
