In his anger, Cameron has made Britain a toxic brand

The context is also crucial. Our European partners are not deaf. They hear the debate in this country – the way the prime minister has barely a good word to say for the EU, how he responds to the Ukip critique by agreeing with it. And those central European nations that were once such admirers of Britain – the Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and Romanians – hear too the anti-immigrant rhetoric and conclude that we have lurched into a xenophobia that would deny their citizens a right they now cherish. Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform says Britain’s former allies are "in despair. They want to help us, they want us to stay in – but the brand is increasingly toxic."