Derick Mackenzie's Blog

PYGMIES AT THE HELM AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE ICEBERG

The following is a selection of quotes from Max Hastings' article in today's Daily Mail.

"...Eurosceptics gleefully cheered at the notion that a prime minister has at last done the big thing, telling the Frogs and Huns to get stuffed."

"...Euro-enthusiasts - including most of the BBC's commentators - talk as if any responsible British leader must shut his eyes and vote with our 26 partners, even on a day-trip to hell. They are in denial about the ghastly predicament of the whole EU project."

"The Europeans want to preserve a gold-plated social model, to ring-fence themselves against the cold winds of the real world outside. However, they will fail."

"The worst consequence of Cameron's veto is likely to be that our EU partners will dismiss our views and, indeed, seek to punish us."

"The erratic President Sarkozy of France, who sometimes seems close to madness...His petulance and fevered efforts to escape looming electoral defeat at home, has worsened the crisis. We should pray nightly for his political demise in the spring."

"Critics of last week's veto, such as Ed Miliband, talk as if David Cameron had a duty to stay aboard the euro-liner even as it races towards the iceberg, merely because none of the other passengers has got off."

"It would probably be best for Britain, as well as for the Western world, if the euro collapsed swiftly, the boil was lanced."

"Europe needs strong and far-sighted leaders, and instead is being guided by pygmies."