Should Britain break from Europe?

With David Cameron's long-awaited speech on Europe set for early this year, Emily Hohler reviews some of the arguments for and against Britain staying in the European Union.

"First on the list for 2013 is Europe", says Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. David Cameron has promised an early speech' on the subject. It is expected to set out demands for powers to be repatriated from Brussels, with a view to negotiating a new settlement that will be put to a referendum.

More Britons than ever want to leave Europe' 51% against 40% for staying and disillusionment with Europe has led to record levels of support for the UK Independence Party. Even Jacques Delors, architect of the euro, demonstrated a "sense of realpolitik" last week when he suggested in Handelsblatt, a German newspaper, that if Britain could not support the "trend towards more integration", we could "nevertheless remain friends, but on a different basis". The Union of European Federalists suggests Britain could be given a second-class' membership of the bloc.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.