Governors of other E.U. states reacted quickly to David Cameron’s announcement
that if his party would be re-elected to lead the House of Commons, he would give his
state’s residents a chance to vote yes or no on seceding from the European
Union. The result would be decisive, rather than readily replaced by a later referendum. Cameron said the referendum would also be contingent on him not being able
to renegotiate his state’s place in the Union. This renegotiation in particular
prompted some particularly acute reactions from the governments of other “big states.”
Behind these reactions was a sense that the British government was being too
selfish. This was not fair, I submit, because the ground of the dispute was on the nature of the E.U. itself as a federal system.
The full essay is at "Britain in a Confederation?"