IF BRITAIN adhered to Groucho Marx’s dictum of never joining a club willing to have him as a member, it would be on its way out of the European Union. The “renegotiation” of Britain’s EU membership pursued by David Cameron, the prime minister, has been a fanciful exercise designed to keep his Conservative Party in check. But it has at least forced Britain’s EU partners to accept that, if pushed, they are better off with the infuriating islanders as part of the family. The EU, said Bild, an exuberant German tabloid, would be “spiritually” poorer after a Brexit (even if that may be read as a plea not to be left with the French and Italians).
The paper was responding to a draft settlement for Britain sent to EU governments last week by Donald Tusk, president of the European Council. Mr Cameron aims to convert Mr Tusk’s paper into a deal during a summit of EU leaders on February 18th-19th, and then put Britain’s membership to a referendum, probably in June. There is plenty of time for hiccups before then. The Poles and others are grumbling about an “emergency brake” that allows Britain to restrict benefit payments to working EU…