David Cameron har vakt anti-britiske stemninger til live i EU og de kommer åpent til utrykk. Tyske og franske politikere ønsker å marginalisere Storbritannia. Det snakkes endog om å presse britene ut av EU.
Følelsene er gjensidige. Det er et økende antall tories som ønsker en slik løsning.
Lord Ashdown, a former Lib Dem leader, said: “The anti-European prejudice of some in the Tory party … has now created anti-British prejudice in Europe.”
Senior European politicians and officials say Mr Cameron’s stand will have severe consequences. Martin Schulz, the German euro-MP who will become the president of the European parliament early next year, said Britain could be forced to quit the EU.
Elmar Brok, a senior German Christian Democrat euro-MP who is close to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the EU “must now marginalise Britain, so that the country comes to feel its loss of influence”.
Samtidig kritiserer Liberaldemokratenes leder Nick Clegg det britiske veto. Clegg snakker om at Storbritannia blir stående som en pygme. Det gjør ham ikke populær blant toryene. Koalisjonen kan sprekke.
Mr Clegg said he was “bitterly disappointed” that David Cameron has vetoed European treaty changes.
The UK is the only one of 27 European Union members to opt out of closer ties this week.
The Liberal Democrat leader said any further withdrawal from Europe risks making Britain “a pygmy in the world”.
He spoke the Prime Minister straight after the European summit at 4am on Friday morning, warning that the decision to veto the treaty was wrong.
“I made it clear to the PM it was untenable for me to welcome it,” he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show.
EU treaty: David Cameron faces cracks in cabinet over veto
