David Cameron’s argument will fool no-one, and will relegatethe existing EU-UK relationship to the periphery.

Julian Priestley takes an in-depth look at David Cameron’s speech on the UK’s relationship with Europe. He finds that that it fell into familiar Eurosceptic fallacies about the EU, ignored linkages between regulation and the internal market, and overestimated the UK’s chances of renegotiating the relationship with the EU. Instead, he writes, this morning’s speech was solely designed to shore up Cameron’s own position in the Conservative party and to counter UKIP’s increasing anti-EU rhetoric.