ABSTRACT
There are those in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe who say it will make little difference whether the UK stays in the European Union or leaves. In or out, Britain will remain the local neighbourhood troublemaker. As a premise this is pretty sound. It also serves as a warning to the British political class, that the outcome of David Cameron’s 2015–16 negotiations for change may be seen as so modest that anti-EU hostility in the UK media, public opinion and right-wing political groups, could flare up again in a matter of months or rather weeks of the referendum.
