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Daily View: What now for Britain in Europe?

Clare Spencer | 09:30 UK time, Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Following MPs' vote against a public referendum on EU membership 483 votes to 111 commentators ask whether this is the end of the debate on Britain's involvement in Europe.

that a referendum wouldn't have been right as the public are indifferent to Europe:

"Tomorrow's headlines will be dreadful for David Cameron but, in my view, he was right to whip MPs against the motion. Britain might be the most eurosceptic country in the EU but the public care less about the subject than some imagine. Polling by Ipsos-MORI shows that just 3 per cent of voters regard Europe as one of the most 'important issues' facing the UK. As the economy continues to struggle, Tory MPs obsessed with Europe risk appearing eccentric to the electorate."

Conservative MEP that among the 483 MPs who voted against a referendum there are some who broke a pre-election pledge:

"There is one set of MPs, though, for whom absolutely no excuse can be made: those Liberal Democrats who fought the last election on the basis of an unequivocal promise of an In/Out referendum. They were lying, and they knew it at the time. Shame on them."

But Conservative MP that Conservatives also weren't sincere in their voting:

"The heart of the Conservative party is Eurosceptic. Last night more showed their heart. Many of the remaining Conservatives who voted No did so whilst they saying they wanted less EU government, and wanted a referendum at some other time."

debate on Britain's membership to the EU is far from over:

"This should be a wake-up call to David Cameron. He needs to develop a proper policy for repatriating powers from Brussels, change his style of party management, and reform the Whips office.
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"This rebellion will encourage the hard-line Euro-sceptics to try again and again. They will reckon, rightly, that as the parliament goes on the number of potential rebels will grow. If they can get this number of rebels in year two of the parliament, imagine how many they'll attract in 2014 when a whole bunch more MPs have been passed over for promotion. The idea that this vote has lanced the boil, or dealt with the issue of Europe for the parliament is for the birds."

And if this debate does continue, that David Cameron has to start selling the EU more:

"As everyone, not least a chastened Left, accepts, Europe is deeply flawed. Waste and bureaucracy must go. But in a multilateral world, trade, diplomacy and influence are collective issues. As Mr Alexander has said, some of the best arguments for British membership of the EU are found not in Brussels but Beijing. The PM, he now adds, has been "marooned between the rhetoric of opposition and the reality of government.
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"That limbo is no longer at his disposal. Yesterday, David Cameron set himself up not only as an iron prime minister, but also as a dedicated European. Now, with Eurosceptics baying at his door and the eurozone shuffling towards catastrophe, he has the hard, if not impossible, task of proving that he means it."

Finally, the small rebellion tells us nothing new:

"The Tory rebellion tells us nothing we didn't know: even among those voting with Cameron, fanaticism over Europe runs through the party like a stick of rock. Mouth-foaming eye-swivellers abounded in today's debate. Cameron was never in peril once Ed Miliband saved his bacon with the honourable pledge to vote for what most Labour MPs know to be true: being in Europe is our destiny."

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