For Tim Bale, a Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London and an expert on the Conservative Party, David Cameron’s Bloomberg speech was part of a wider pattern of appeasement Cameron began when running for leader in 2005 and which has remained a feature of every Tory leadership since. The “original sin” was Cameron promising to take Tory MEPs out of the centre-right EPP grouping in the European parliament, says Bale. It helped Cameron win the Tory crown — and, says Bale, from that moment no Tory leader has ever taken on their party “and lived to tell the tale”.
The Times