A very short-sighted one of course. Davey had to appeal to the Tory bigots in the Shires to become Conservative leader and it appears as if it's coming back to hurt him.

Europe continues to remain a ticking time-bomb for the Tories. They can afford xenophobia in opposition but it doesn't lend itself well to a future government who needs to get things done with major European powers.

A difficult time is ahead for Cameron. Due to the implosion of the Anglo-Saxon economic consensus, British finance capital is increasingly hedging on the EU to provide a stable trading area and more Euro-integration will be the desired result. Of course this goes against the vast majority of Tory grassroots who oppose the EU for nationalist reasons rather than any question of democracy, but Cameron will have to walk a fine-line to keep both business and the Tory grass-roots on board.

I am guessing that he will put finance interests first (he has to) and will need a Blairesque flair for enforcing his will on a dissenting party. Whether he succeeds depends on whether the parliamentary party will follow, and so it remains to be seen if the Tory xenophobic rants are merely politicking or seriously-held views. Dave just needs to get the parliamentary party on board, as the grass-roots don't matter so much as they are treated with much amusing disdain by their leaders. Besides, the parliamentary party are hungry for power and individual Tories are hungry for government jobs and so they may well wish to put-up with it for so long.