British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold an in or out referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a part of the European Union, allowing voters their first say on the EU since the 1970’s.
Cameron pledged to hold the referendum in 2017 after the next general election, vowing to hold the vote if the Conservatives win a majority at the next election. Critics are already complaining that today’s speech is just hot air as he has effectively blackmailed the electorate by not committing until he is re-elected.
“When we have negotiated that new settlement, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in-or-out choice,” Cameron said in a speech in London today. “To stay in the EU on these new terms, or come out altogether. I’m not a British isolationist,” Cameron said. “I never want us to pull up the drawbridge and retreat.”
Today’s speech is a result of the Prime Minister coming under increasing pressure from Euro sceptics within his own party and the UK independence party. The British public have also grown increasingly disenfranchised with Europe with many angry at the interference from Brussels and concerns that the Eurozone is dragging down the UK economy.
The other political parties have claimed that Cameron’s speech will weaken ties to European business and damage investor confidence into the UK’s role as Europe’s most powerful financial centre.
“We’ve had many great prime ministers; they lead their parties and don’t follow them,” Labour’s business spokesman, Chuka Umunna, told BBC Radio 4. “This will create five years of uncertainty. Global companies looking to locate European headquarters will shy away from the U.K. after this.”
The leadership of the European Union are unlikely to agree to negotiations on returning powers to the UK with EU President Herman Van Rompuy saying last week that, “European interests should always be the most important, the European Union doesn’t just mean taking account of national concerns.”
Leaders from other EU countries say Cameron’s approach is fraught with danger. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said Cameron risks pitting all 26 other EU nations against Britain.
“We need to succeed in moving him,” Faymann told reporters in Strasbourg, France, on Jan. 15th. “It will be important to convince David Cameron that, first, we are a common family and not separate groups, and, second, we need results that perhaps in domestic politics are tougher to explain but that are urgently necessary for the common European endeavour.”
With all of the dire warnings that a UK exit could prove a disaster it could appear to some that the EU is desperate to stop similar votes from taking place in its other member nations. After all if one wants to leave then there is a good chance that others do as well.
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is currently trading at 1.1916
The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5874
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5026
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.3319
The Euro to Pound exchange rate is currently trading at 0.8391
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