One of the biggest concerns to voters is immigration. Cameron has talked about restricting benefits for new arrivals from EU member states. When he finally provided a list of the seven points that he intended to renegotiate with the EU, one of them was “free movement to take up work, but not free benefits.”
Quite apart from the fact that this does not go far enough, he has already run into a spot of bother with the European Commission, which has said it will investigate whether the changes to the benefit rules are legal under existing EU law. However, while Cameron loves to make headlines about “cracking down” on immigration, his recent actions speak louder than words.
Back in February, the Swiss people democratically voted to restrict the free movement of people to their country. The EU’s reaction was to insist that it was not prepared to negotiate quotas on free movement. No surprises here, but according to Open Europe’s blog, “the EU” on this occasion consisted of all 28
member state governments who were unanimous in their decision.
You would think that, given his alleged recognition of British concerns about immigration here, that our Prime Minister, who was prepared to go it alone over the election of Jean-Claude Juncker, would have shown some sympathy for the Swiss position, but apparently not. Instead, he joined the other EU bully-boys
who have insisted that Switzerland will now have to renegotiate its bilateral treaties within three years unless it changes its mind.
So the tried and trusted EU principle of “if your vote goes the wrong way, you had better vote again” is being forced on the Swiss with the support of our Prime Minister. Can we really trust him to obey the voice of the people if, having offered us a referendum in three years’ time, the result isn’t to his liking?