“A little more than half a page of the Coalition Programme for Government deals with Britain’s relations with the European Union and, like much of the rest of the coalition deal, the EU policy combines soothing words and a mixture of Conservative and Lib Dem policy commitments.
Brussels, for a brief fortnight, enthused about the prospect of strong Lib Dem representation at Europe’s top table when Clegg excelled in the leadership debates, and will be content with the smooth language that softens the edge of Tory Euroscepticism, talking of Britain being a “positive participant in the European Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners”.”