The cards were always stacked against us. Cameron acted with honour and showed some guts in the end. Leaving the EU doesn't mean loss of trade with the EU - we are of more value to their budgets than the other way around.

We are not alone...

That's what I call correct engineering!

We wouldn't be alone, we'd be with the rest of humanity and still trading with the EU. Its time to do much more with the Commonwealth, who we neglected and deserted when Heath took us into the so called 'Common Market' in the 1970s....and what a duff sell that was.

World at One....isn't that the BBC? Enough said.

Lovely comment Alistair, which I wholeheartedly agree with and endorse.

Hear Hear...no taxation without influential representation! Time for the Club subscription to reflect the services and benefits received.

Its an old tiresome argument that is fundamentally flawed, that says (as you do by inference if not directly) that you can only be a proud European country and part of the family if you are in the EU or part of the Eurozone. I am very very proud to be a European and love the peoples of Europe. That doesn't mean I also have to love the Euro or love any political construct in Europe. To equate one with the other is to pedal a lie. And by the way your comment " you don't really like them foreigners" is a bit silly when I wrote "Lets talk to India, Africa, the Americas, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, China, Canada etc etc etc..." - they are mostly all much more 'foreign' than any European, and your words now seem sillier in view of my pride in and love of Europe. The EU is NOT Europe and vice versa. To suggest so is to completely mislead and also cut out many other proud European nations as if they don't even matter.

1. We have done best when trading globally. 2. Not being on the Euro-club isn't isolationism its liberation and the rest of the world is much bigger. 3. We can still trade with the EU just as many other countries do without being in the Euro or even for that matter in the EU itself. Can do...does. Can't do...doesn't.

We were correct to fight and should be proud as a nation that we stood our ground, despite the sacrifice, against one of the most evil dictatorships in human history. True, the Americans were too keen to see the British empire disbanded and took advantage of us over our war debt....the world owed us something of a debt, but we didn't exactly entirely gain by the peace. But our record is an honourable and inspirational one. No Empire has disbanded itself with as much order or honour than we did - that is not to say or claim that it was perfect at all, just that it was more perfect than any other and the proof is in the Commonwealth relationships that have continued since those days. The Soviet Union was clearly another awful dictatorship under Stalin and we were lucky that it was on our side against Hitler or we could probably have not been able to survive. We owe the Russian people a great debt and vice versa...North Atlantic Convoy etc, and the resources Hitler had to keep back from Russia to face us. Interestingly, no one has been able to dominate Europe when Britain and Russia have been united against them....food for thought. Final thought - we should not put ourselves or our country down but be proud of it, not blindly proud, but have suitable pride. Let the naysayers go to the Doom Bar, the rest of us can smile and drink pints of Spitfire!

We won WW2, with our allies...don't you remember, El Alamein, D-day, Normandy, the Battle of Britain etc etc. We saved the USSR as much as the other way around and we stood steadfast with limited US support until it entered the war. If Britain and Russia hadn't survived to fight back, and forced Hitler into facing 2+ fronts, then he could have won. We won, at great cost of lives and wealth, thanks to ourselves and our allies.

Yes, the combination of the two sentences in one paragraph was a little misleading... Many thanks Riccardo's Ghost for pulling me up on this. Naturally I more than know we weren't alone then!

Re: "Seems like defeatist claptrap to me" - No, what is defeatist is to believe that we cannot survive outside being a full member of the EU and Eurozone. That is the defeatism that led us from a "Common Market" into 'ever-closer union'...our older politicians have shown great insecurity and joined the gang, and thereby surrendered independence. Re: "No, it was built on conquest, repression and violence, like all Empires." - again, you're wrong. The facts are that the empire first came from trade, followed by the state to control that trade. We were an economic empire more than anything else. History tells us so. How else could we have had a Commonwealth created if we had been like all other empires, none of whom set up such sustained friendly relations.

RE: "the Big Beasts of the EU" - do you mean people like Jean-Claude Junker, Prime Minister of that mighty European state Luxembourg, with its population half that of Birmingham. This political minimus has no right to dictate to us. Other 'Big Beasts' must include Herman van Rumpoy, from that World-beating country called Belgium, otherwise known as Walloonia and Flanders, the two irreconcilable linguistic blocks. Don't forget Italy's Monti - the man put in charge of that proud country without elections, by the EU-elite. And what of Sakozy, that vain-glorious little man, who is now in apparent permanent embrace with Angela Merkel. These Big Beasts are political pygmies, who are not worthy even to sit at the same table as the great European leaders of the past. They can keep their summits in Marseilles or anywhere else. Lets talk to India, Africa, the Americas, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, China, Canada etc etc etc...much more important that the closed society of Europe, with its petty and commerce-hindering regulations and bullying of other members of their club.

Very good!

"The Empire is gone, this is the 21st century, isn't it time we started living in it?" Yes, and that means trading with the rest of the world, where many of the most exciting emerging and emerged economies are Commonwealth countries. Our Empire was always one formed on trade. Those who have decried the Empire are the same who have lacked confidence in our country to go out and be a great success, without being inhibited by nervous 'we can't do it alone' naysayers! Time for the do-down Britain crowd to step down and let rip the incredible vitality and ability in our people.

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I agree!

The City doesn't almost rival New York, it beats New York!

Yet again Britain stands alone in Europe - each time we have done so before, we have been right. Back in 1914 we went to war as a result of a German jealousy for our Empire and their desire to have their own and be a top dog. Far from Britain being in 'Little Englander' mode, it is the 'Little Euroland' that is the island and we who look across the vast trading oceans that are the rest of the world. It is time for us to get out from the regulating, democracy-destroying Euro-clique (see Italy & Greece....less democratically run now than Russia), who are unwittingly fast creating a new form of USSR (I kid you not...they will see the reality in time). France and Germany cannot pretend that their suggested tobin-tax is simply a tax designed to steal Britain's wealth to pay for mistakes by Euro-zone governments. Banks are not the problem - it is governments and politicians who now represent the greatest threat to growth and freedom in Europe. It was France and Germany who flagrantly broke the rules designed to ensure proper economic management in the Eurozone, well before Greece or Ireland went belly-up. This is a moment Britain must seize, to make us a global trading entity again, which is how we first became a great and very wealthy country. We should not fear being on the edge of Europe when it means we can be at the centre of the rest of the world. We should look to the Commonwealth for opportunity and offer the exciting and growing economies there, especially in Africa, more opportunity for trade. Merkozy can enjoy their love-in and stew in the rank juices of their dictatorial threats towards Britain. We have so many more delicious partners to work with around the rest of the world. ....and they can't rip up the Treaty of Rome or any other European free trade pacts without destroying the EU's democratic free trade reputation. It is time for us to say 'No' to any further diminution of our freedoms and sovereignty. For far too long PMs and others in Westminster have handed more of our freedoms to the EU, far beyond the 'Common Market' the people of Britain believed they were joining. Each treaty signed lacked a proper democratic legitimacy, and as we know, in the EU, any country's citizens who dared vote 'No' in referendums on Euro treaties was asked to vote again until they gave the right answer. No further example is needed to prove the fundamental undemocratic nature of the continued expansion of EU power, and now in Italy a new government has been imposed on its people, without any election and its leader made a Senator for Life. Whatever one's views on Berlusconi, how can any European politician ever preach democracy to other countries with integrity? Have no fear Britain. Opportunity lies ahead and we have one of the most innovative, creative and mercantile peoples in the world. We know we have faced far greater threats from political blocks in Europe and always come through. Time to join the World and have association with the EU without the burdens of membership...that has to be the logic of the situation. Grrr to Merkozy!

The fact of the matter is that even if Cameron wanted to do this, he is prevented from doing so by the coalition partners, the LibDems. No substantial or even minor recovery of control or sovereignty will occur during the term of this parliament, nor the next or the one after that. The Westminster circle is dead set against the idea.

I think the best response would be for the electors to decide on the issue by the chance to 'electorally shag' Cllr Swainson at the polling station in the next local elections, and thereby turn him into a Labour Swansong!

Q: "Just what is a Conservative approach to urban congestion?" Answer: Boris bikes and clear blue Tory bike lanes everywhere!

Finally, it seems Cllr Barrow may make amends for his parking proposals in the west end by clearing Parliament Square of 24/7 all year, permanently encamped protesters. This whole saga has been a blight, and taken away access to public space from law-abiding citizens and tourist visitors. Parliament, Westminster and City Hall have been presented as weak, with failed collaboration between them and what seems like a lack of determined resolve. If this isn't true, then why didn't the new by-law appear years ago. The dangerous dogs act came into play very fast so Westminster should not have had to wait so many years for the new Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act. These protest camps must be ended once and for all...not protest, or the right to protest, but purely permanent camps. Of course, the real reason Parliament Square has been allowed to be blighted in this way is because of guilt on the side of the former Labour / Blair government, who took the country into the unpopular war in Iraq on a prospectus that has been deeply questioned. Next stop St Paul's...

The Coalition government will not allow any repatriation of powers from the EU. That is the sad fact of the matter. Yet again, we British people are treated like mushrooms without a right to give our voice. There may be a severe electoral price to pay one day.