The mist is clearing around how Cameron plans to deal with the threat of UKIP. He is well aware that UKIP’s policies as set forth by Nigel Farage are far closer to Tory Party grass roots, and he knows that the old containment plan has fallen to pieces.

Cameron the politician came to power in his party using the illusion of euroscepticism, by declaring that the Tory MEPs would pull out of the main centre-right group.  Given the impotence of the European so-called Parliament, this was only ever a symbolic gesture.  Following that came Cameron’s worthless ‘cast-iron guarantee’, and in government the sop of offering a referendum in the event of a new EU treaty, a new treaty which is unlikely ever to be needed, given the all-encompassing nature of the Lisbon Treaty. However, his actions have always been wholly in line with the treacherous party of Heath, not least his failure to support Czech president Klaus’s valiant last stand against Lisbon.

So, what is Cameron planning for the future? From what I can work out, he wants to take the Tories into the next election promising that old red herring renegotiation.  Rather than bowing to public opinion and giving us a clear choice of national independence or the ever-closer union of a federal Europe, we will be given a false best-of-both-worlds option, which keeps us within the EU, but with a veneer of repatriating powers.  This is designed to split eurosceptics down the middle, between those who understand the system and want out, from those who don’t really understand the system but don’t like it. These latter will most likely grab hungrily at these crumbs, especially as the Euro-fanatics will be attacking the renegotiated terms as if the sky will fall if they are accepted.

Cameron cannot be trusted. He may be sincere, but unfortunately it is probably the sincerity practiced by the likes of Blair, which is more a form of self-hypnosis technique to believe his own lies. However, sincerity is not enough.  A renegotiation will not change the shift of power from open, democratically-accountable institutions to hidden bureaucracies. As libertarians, we are quite aware of the pit-falls of democracy, and that democracy and liberty are very different things. Nevertheless, a movement away from democracy towards bureaucratic control cannot be anything other than a step in the wrong direction.