British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday that he was defending British interests when he vetoed a new treaty designed to stabilize the Eurozone, and experts spoke to RT about what it could mean for the island nation.
British MEP Paul Nuttall told RT that his country’s decision could bring punishment from the EU leadership. However, he believes, the PM had few options.
“I don’t think that David Cameron had any choice,” Nuttall said. Cameron’s “own backers would not allow him to sign the deal, and secondly, the British people would not allow him to sign the deal – because if he did sign it, it would point to a referendum.” That referendum, Nuttall claims, would herald Britain’s exit from the EU.
Nutall also believes the move could cause political isolation for the UK: “what will happen is that we will be a minority of one; there will be 26 countries versus ourselves.”
Nonetheless, Nutall claims, in a perfect world the Euro would not have succeeded anyway. “If we were all good Europeans,” he says, “what we would allow to happen is for Greece, and Portugal, and Spain, and Italy – and maybe Ireland – to fall out altogether, devalue, get back onto their own currencies, set competitive exchange rates, and get their exports moving, because that is the only way these countries can prosper – outside the prison of Europe.”
Marco Pietropoli, a financial adviser with RM Wealth Management, also told RT the British Prime Minister’s decision to go it alone was the right one.
“I don’t think we’ve gone against Europe,” Pietropoli said. “We decided not to sign up for any further loss of sovereignty, and that’s fundamental.”
Pietropoli agreed that Cameron’ choice did not come as a big surprise, especially considering how his party has voiced its opinion in recent weeks. But, Pietropoli notes, refusing to sign the deal doesn’t really affect the UK.
“We are not part of the Euro, we don’t want to give up our power to set up our own budget, our own taxation, we don’t want to give up the power to regulate our own financial industry. So, in many ways the Eurozone can’t go ahead on its own – it would have been great to have Britain as part of it, but in the grand scheme of things, this is a Euro problem – and, of course, we are not part of it.”