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| Europe-- Will we stay or will we go? |
The coalition will need to focus upon the economy but will also be considering issues like reform of the House of Lords and the long term care of older people. The latter is judged to be more important than the former except if you are a constitutional lawyer perhaps.The High speed rail link seems to have been kicked into the long grass but the 10 year programme to reform welfare support is ongoing if not controversial;similarly out of circa 3,260 schools 1,300 (55%) have applied to be academies.
One possible future development has been ignored but not by the Spectator. Boris Johnson, (becoming increasingly popular amongst the Tory rank and file and indeed some MP's as well), has apparently signed a petition to have a referendum on UK membership of the EU. If Boris were to press David Cameron for the Tory Party leadership what an extremely popular ( if not populist) move this would be. In 2015, to differentiate itself from the the other parties -- the Tories may well offer a referendum on continuing UK EU membership. Apparently this is "highly likely" to form a big plank of the future Tory election manifesto.
The shadow of UKIP and its growing though yet still relatively small influence also has a part to play in this story. The question in any referendum may well not be a straight in or out. It may ask the people to give the UK government the authority to substantially renegotiate the level of the UK's EU membership. I am not sure what our European partners will think of such a move.Leaving Europe, if that were to happen, would not necessarily shield us from the economic consequences of what goes on in Euroland, whatever the Eurosceptics might have us believe.
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