Britain's dangerous direction

The full ramifications of David Cameron's landmark decision to divide Britain from the rest of the EU are sinking in fast

Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Policy Network president Peter Mandelson argues that the UK prime minister threw the goodwill of Europe's politicians back in their faces at the recent EU Summit.

He warns that Cameron "has managed to make a once in a generation choice that marks not just a departure from every previous British government but from every previous Conservative prime minister as well." Read the full article here.

Roger Liddle, chair of Policy Network, commented in The Huffington Post that Cameron's gambit was: "An act of self isolation, which was taken for purely political reasons to do with pressure inside the Conservative Party. I don't think it's anything to do with British interests whatsoever. I think that the argument about defending British interests is extremely weak."

And, in a Policy Network comment piece, director Olaf Cramme reflects on the folly of the prime minister's "lose-lose" political brinksmanship, also pointing out that narratives on Europe based around "red lines” and the “British national interest" have become deeply ingrained in the British national psyche. Furthermore, Cramme comments in The New York Times on how Cameron has alienated his continental counterparts, maintaining that “the European Union is very much built on mutual trust, the relationships between leaders and the bonds of different countries.”