Britain and the EU - Revolt may have impact in Ireland

The topic may not dominate or even feature at the more glittering dinner parties in Ireland this weekend but the momentum building behind Britain’s Eurosceptic Tories about an in-or-out EU vote deserves, from a purely selfish Irish view, some serious consideration.

That David Cameron seems to lack the ruthlessness needed to quell dissent or sideline inconvenient, avoidable issues as some of his predecessors might have, gives further impetus to those considerations.

That he must balance the complexities of sustaining a coalition with the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats and the demands of his increasingly boisterous Eurosceptics makes the task even more difficult. That he must do so while he and his less strident backbenchers are constantly goaded by today’s iteration of Little Englanders in politics — the United Kingdom Independence Party — makes it even more difficult.