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  1. Culture
4 November 2009

The Sun gives Cameron a pass on Europe

Where are the cries of betrayal?

By George Eaton

Is the Sun going soft? Today’s leader on the Lisbon Treaty is uncharacteristically pragmatic. Far from attacking David Cameron’s decision to abandon his “cast-iron guarantee” of a referendum, it resignedly accepts the treaty as a “fact of life” and bizarrely declares that the Tory leader “stuck by his original pledge”.

The red-top does not even adopt the position taken by David Davis, who today calls for a wider referendum on EU powers to be held within three months of Cameron taking office.

Instead, it argues that the Tories cannot waste precious energy battling the Eurocrats so long as the economic crisis goes on. As ever, the possibility that greater European integration could combat the recession is not considered. Were it not for the euro, Ireland would now be known as Reykjavik-on-Liffey.

Trevor Kavanagh et al insist: “We are not prepared to tie David Cameron’s hands just as he is about to take the wheel.”

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Andy Coulson, who secured the paper’s endorsement of the Tories, has clearly persuaded his old Wapping colleagues to go easy on Cameron until he’s safely installed in Downing Street.

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