Quite.
He was about to go into negotiations to try to gain concessions and people honesty expect him to say "it would be an unmitigated disaster if we left and I'm going to campaign to stay in no matter what. Oh, and please an I have some concessions." Get real. His only hope of gaining anything was to suggest we might leave if he came away empty handed.
But he did leave empty handed didn't he? What's changed?
We weren't ever in the Euro, and now we're still not in it.
We will not be part of further political integration, we never have been a part of political integration have we? again, no change here.
We can control our borders by not being part of Shengen, again no change, that's what we have now. We still cannot refuse EU citizens who want to come here to work, even if they have no skills.
Nothing else has changed, except we now may (subject to EU ratification) be able to stop in work benefits for four years and we may be able to only pay Child allowance at the prevailing rate in the country from which the person came and in which the child lives. I can't understand why each country in the EU just don't pay the child allowance for their own children, after all it's one big happy family isn't it?
The cost of administering the child allowance payments will probably offset the minimal savings that could be realised, it won't just happen you know!
The irony is that none of these have been agreed yet and they may not be agreed, remember it only takes one country to veto and.... It does not go through. It genuinely doesn't seem like a good deal to me.
I genuinely think that if we vote to stay then we should join and join fully. Adopt the Euro, be part of the strategic decision making process instead of as Dave put it "being on the outside with our ears and noses to the glass wanting to join in". What we are going into is the worst possible scenario you can imagine. If we do vote to remain I look forward to revisiting this thread in a couple of months time.... and yes, it will say "I fucking told you so"
