EU - David Cameron's speech - Thoughts

When reasonably impressed with David Cameron's latest speech on the EU, I made notes about it which I am later turning into this blog post:

Cameron's astute analysis of the political and historical situation that he finds himself has been greatly to his advantage. His description of British mentality was seemingly accurate: the focus on pragmatism; the paradox between isolationist geography and mentality against openness and multiculturalism. Cameron clearly has a strong understanding of history, which can only be a good thing, rooting the debate in its past.

The speech itself was notably pro-Britain and aiming to improve our role in Europe. He is very much a Tory, and not a liberal idealist striving for the good of all.

It seems that the main question to ask about Europe and the EU is how attached Britain should be to the rest of the continent.
One way of looking at this is to say that it is necessary to be part of Europe as a political entity in order to remain relevant. The story of Britain over the last century is one of a diminishment in influence. Attaching to Europe might be one way of preventing this. Cameron says that we have more global influence due to our EU connection. On the other hand, the last century is also the story of the collapse of Europe. Europe is failing, and so gluing ourselves to it might actually be a killing stroke. The failing of Europe is the one historical point he does not acknowledge.

I like his focus on the importance of democracy in the EU. This is what we are exporting all over the world (for better or worse), so we must have it ourselves. The purpose of the EU (and UN etc.) is to make nations responsible for their actions, and to create a system of leadership that controls those at the top. The problem of history has always been that nations have had no laws to prevent them acting as they please on the global scale. If we are to have a system that prevents this (as well we should), it must be democratic in style.
In particular, his discussion about letting heretical views be heard and never denouncing new thoughts is crucial. This is one of the most important ideas in today's society, and boils down to the importance of free speech. Cameron was able to discuss these issues in an intelligent, rather than simply rhetorical way, like we often get from Obama. Diversity of thought amongst nations is good, like he says, as long as this does not take the form of acceptance of all ideas. It should be in the form of ideas competing with each other, for progress.

I was glad to hear him state strongly that we're not joining the Euro. There would be serious problems there and its fortunate that there's no chance that'll happen.

Cameron did make an assumption of the importance of capitalism as an economic structure, discussing ideas such as the single market and competitiveness without much question. This was weaker intellectually than his talk on democracy, but actually he is probably correct in his conclusion, despite it being arrived at from an assumption. Competition fuels progress and encourages economic growth across the board.

Co-operation, alongside competition of argument and economics seems like a reasonable vision. However, is Europe the right force to join with, or are we strapping ourselves to a nation free-falling into chaos and collapse?
It is also in doubt as to whether a true and complete union with Europe is possible, since us Brits will always be somewhat separate and isolated in our geography and mentality.

Cameron made a bold move, stating that there will, in the future, be an in-out referendum. I think he is right to not do this straight away, but it is important to educate the people about the issues involved. This will be fascinating to watch (assuming a Labour government isn't voted in next time!)