And just what is waiting in the wings?

Douglas Carswell posts on the appointment of Jon Cunliffe as the new UKREP, the head of the British team of negotiators. As Carswell notes, Cunliffe's appointment is being spun by Downing Street as "the man who likes to say NO" - something which is a tad distant from the truth. One interesting extract from Carswell's post is:

"So concerned was I by the deal he negotiated, I met Cunliffe recently to discuss the small print of the Van Rompuy report, signed up to by George Osborne.  When I pressed Cunliffe on why non-Euro Britain was now subject to EU oversight (the ministers I raised it with didn’t seem to know), his response seemed to be along the lines of if I thought that bad, wait until I saw what else the Commission in Brussels had planned for us."

It is the words "If I thought that was bad, wait until I saw what else the Commission in Brussels had planned for us" that begs the question: Just what is planned for us - about which we have yet to be informed. Following on from that is another question: Just how much of Coalition policy is based on compliance with forthcoming Commission directives and regulations? 

From Carswell:

"It was Cunliffe who negotiated the Stabilisation Mechanism deal leading to the ECOFIN meeting in May, whereby Britain accepted enormous liabilities to try to prop up the Euro.  He thereby managed to make us part of the Euro debt union, if not the currency union. It was Cunliffe who negotiated British entry into a system of pan-European economic governance, which means our elected government and Parliament must subject our tax and spend decisions to EU oversight."

But hey, it allows David Cameron to publicly bluster and promise opposition to EU policies which he (or his Chancellor) must have agreed to in the first place, months previously.

Smoke and mirrors?