Quote of the day 21st February 2016

"David Cameron has demonstrated that the biggest mistake in British politics is to underestimate him.
 
"Admittedly, his deal is not a total overhaul of the European Union. But it’s a far more significant recalibration of Britain’s position within that Union than his critics were predicting.

"The “principled and upfront” protection outside the eurozone that Mark Carney, the Bank of England Governor, advocated has been won. So have the guarantees that Britain will be exempt from further “political integration” – the nightmare scenario painted by the Eurosceptics.
 
"This is not quite the fundamental reform Cameron spoke of in his 2013 Bloomberg speech. But while the Out camp will mock, his assertion that the UK now enjoys “special status” within the EU is entirely accurate.

"We were told it would be impossible for him to maintain Cabinet unity through the course of the renegotiations. He did. We were told he would find it impossible to secure agreement on migrant benefits. He did – to the extent Out are now claiming the issue was never a major one at all. We were told the entire referendum pledge was hollow, and would be discarded when the general election was out of the way. It wasn’t. We were told pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers would be gagged. They aren’t. "

(Cameron's critics) "should look at the speech he delivered on Friday night as he unveiled his deal. Despite the lateness of the hour, it represented the most articulate and passionate case for Britain’s place in the EU made by a Tory party leader since Margaret was banging the drum for the In campaign in the EEC referendum of 1975."

(Dan Hodges in a Telegraph article which you can read here.)

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