London Mayor presses PM Cameron on the EU calling for a referendum
London Mayor Boris Johnson heaped pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron this week by calling for a referendum on a deeply pared back British membership of the European Union.
Johnson, speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, said the Euro was a calamitous project and that Britain should negotiate a new treaty to prevent its slide out of the world’s biggest economic area.
“Boil it to down to the single market, that’s the great achievement of the European Union, I think we could easily scrap the social chapter, the fisheries policy,” Johnson, a Conservative party member seen as a potential rival to Cameron, said in a speech.
“That is a renegotiated Treaty we could and should put to the vote of the British people.
“It is high time that we had a referendum, and it would be a very simple question. Do you want to stay in the EU single market — yes or no?”
Johnson sidestepped three questions on whether he would like to be a future prime minister but he has set a high bar for Cameron. Negotiating such a new deal with Europe would be extremely difficult with EU allies unlikely to approve such a radical treaty change.
“There will be a huge barrage from foreign legations saying ‘This is not on the table, there is no way we’ll accept this,’” said Johnson, a formidable campaigner whose messy mop of platinum blond hair makes him instantly recognizable.
“The choice is going to be very simple: it’s between staying in on our terms or getting out” he told the audience of investors and bankers.
Dropping out of the European Union could isolate the world’s sixth largest economy and bankers warn that such a dramatic move would sap the power of the City of London, Europe’s dominant financial centre.
But the turmoil of the eurozone crisis and the prospect of the currency bloc forming a closer political union that London will not join have convinced many within the ruling Conservative party and beyond that they must seek a new deal with Europe. The issue, which has ripped previous Conservative administrations apart, has shot to the top of the political agenda with anti-EU party lawmakers pushing for a looser relationship with the 27-nation bloc — or even leaving altogether.







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It's about time we really did make some noise about a referendum on staying in Europe.
Maybe this time Came-moron will listen to the people he's supposed to represent............... Then again.....
I know!! but if he does shame Came-moron into having a referendum on Europe then I might just forgive him for his silly haircut!!
Think of the organisations she would complain to,
UN , OAS , unasur , Mercosur , N U T ,
Friends of camaron.com….lol.
By the time she gets finished talking and crying, the EU will beg us to leave .
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I have always liked this young Turk........ even if he is David Cameron's cousin....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson#Parental_origins.2C_education_and_marriages
Chuckle chuckle
BoJo's father was briefly in the intelligence agency. There are some very funny stories about that family but they are endearing because they don't try to hide it or rewrite history.
They seriously believe France, Germany, and Italy (whose economies are larger or the same as the UK on their own, and much larger in tandem), will actually listen to the petulant brits
we want to pick and choose what EU things we like or don't... basically, we wan't to have access but not pay for it.
This stuff can't be made up.
The Europeans will tell you to stuff it. You will think that's swell... and then you will be utterly isolated and your products will no longer enter the EU free.
Then you go in the crapper.
Projecting again are we Tito???
Seriously, did you witness a family break up or did a family pet die when you were young?
Which one is it? we would all love to know and then we will all know why are hate Argentina so much...............
Under the present and future (they will never back down) laws of the EU your two wishes are mutually exclusive.
I do hope (but cannot see it happening) that the UK is allowed a vote to leave or stay.
Retired as I am in Uruguay I will miss it, if it ever happens.
I can envisage us holding a referendum on whether we should hold a referendum!
That our own government cant,
And if our own government can’t or wont give us, then there is something very badly wrong with our government.
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