Back home

Back in Britain I find that not only nothing much has changed - the same dull election campaign going on in the same dull fashion - but we seem to have regressed. Open Europe tells us

The latest British Chambers of Commerce EU barometer found that 63% of the 3,800 businesses surveyed said that withdrawing from the EU would have a negative impact, while 12% and 11% said it would have a positive impact or no impact respectively. The poll also found that 55% of businesses felt that remaining inside the EU but with specific powers transferred from Brussels back to Westminster would be a positive scenario compared to 10% who felt it would be negative.

That's good. Has anyone told those businesses or their representatives who were packed off to answer the survey, that there really is very little possibility of specific powers coming back to Westminster in the circumstances as they are? Probably not.

After all, the Director of Open Europe has the following to contribute:

I think the Conservatives could reclaim some powers, strengthen the role of the UK Parliament and have more of a Common Market-style membership. That’s what the UK joined for in the first place.

Not exactly Mr Persson. What the UK joined and what a number of people thought they joined are two different things. That appears to be the problem to this day.