Vampire Votes for Europe

Today's news are that the monster vampire squid - a certain US banking group - has come out strongly in favour of Britain remaining in the European Union. The banker-friendly regulatory regime in London, that so nearly released the world economy to self-destruct in 2006-8, has been tightened; but not so much that it is no longer the global bankers' favourite playground.

And every Briton should give thanks for that every day, because finance is one of the few UK business sectors that is productive for the economy; in the sense that a net profit come to London in terms of tax revenue and distributed profits, to staff who live here and shareholders who mostly don't live in the UK but who reinvest some and spend more in London.

Although the EU institutions and the eurorats who wallow in their corruption hate the City of London they have not yet been able to suppress its enterprising an innovative spirit. Thus while most British voters would prefer to be free of all that 'Brussels' represents in terms of interfering, largely irrelevant regulation and cost, the profitable 'banking' and motor industries would probably have to put their profits into Europe-based rather than UK facilities if Britain were to leave the EU.

David Cameron, with immense immodesty, has offered himself as the one person who can so successfully 'renegotiate' British membership of and participation in the EU that a majority of the population would vote to remain in on his terms. I don't believe that he can. No European leader has said that they would support treaty revision, and most have said it is out of the question. The British people are not daft enough to take the word of a politician - especially not one who has spent five years in close proximity to the despised ex- and perhaps future-eurorat Clegg - so the terms will not be taken according to Cameron's spin.

The strongest probability is that Cameron himself will be forced to recognise that any package that the rats let him take home can't be sold even to the disillusioned British electorate. Thus before we vote we need to know what his Plan B will be. If he still goes for an in/out referendum he can make a deal with Farage, and take Britain further down the road to economic ruin.

The odds are that Cameron won't have a chance to negotiate, because any coalition partner he may find - other than Farage - in the event of the Tories being close to having a parliamentary majority will stymie any plan to leave the EU.

 In the event that the sorry figure of Milliband becomes tenant of Number Ten, his probable allies the ScotNats will demand their renegotiation to allow a future independent [probably bankrupt] Scotland to be fast-tracked to membership of the EU. Spain and others will veto that. So whatever decision the people make in June, the EU will loom large and ugly in British politics for years to come.

Oh dear!