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The case­­ for British withdrawal from the European Union is collapsing faster than the argument for Scottish independence.

Wild Europhobe claims the nation would be better off Out than In have proved flakier than a freshly baked croissant.

Warnings from an unlikely alliance of President Obama and Richard Branson that Britain, marooned alone off the Continent, would lose jobs and influence are hitting home.

Top pollster Peter Kellner predicts a referendum would produce a comfortable common sense majority to stay within the European Union.

Hard-headed calls on wages and employment would influence how people voted, trumping dewy-eyed visions of mystical futures.

Alex Salmond and his SNP separatists have been on the back foot, and may never regain the initiative, since Scots started thinking about jobs instead of Braveheart DVDs. Prosperity is an equally strong card to play on the EU, trouncing anti-European prejudice.

Europhobes gloating at the euro’s troubles ignore the weakness of the pound and the ailing British economy.

The country’s balance of payments has ballooned above £50billion, the worst trade deficit since 1990 and abnormally high during austerity.

Europhobes relishing civil unrest in Greece conveniently forget the worse riots which swept Britain in 2011, claiming four lives in London and Birmingham.

The EU is imperfect, like any international alliance.

The real danger is David Cameron’s crude game of blackmail will cheat everyday Britons.

Talk of repatriating social powers would give Cameron the right to end a legal entitlement to paid holidays.

Ending judicial co-operation means criminals, including white-collar crooks, could hop borders to evade the law.

Cameron’s acting out of party interest not national interest, a PM pushed around by Tory Europhobes who are on the Right politically and would strip employees of job rights. Britain in the EU now is more attractive than Britain in an EU the PM plots.

Fortunately a Premier who couldn’t decide what day he’d deliver a speech is incapable of leading an important debate.

The one advantage the Europhobes possess is foot soldiers, people who’ll stand up and argue the toss.

Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg are pro-EU, as is Cameron even if it’s a different EU.

Most Labour MPs are pro-EU but the trade unions have largely swung away, dangerously so in my view.

The referendum, if held, needs to be won on Britain in the EU as much as the referendum on Scotland in Britain.

Thankfully Europeans are championing the cause. The danger is they’ll now become as swivel-eyed and boring as the antis.

Europe is a crucial issue but let’s never forget people are more interested in other questions.

Tip-toeing away in kitten heels

THERESA May’s been caught tip-toeing away from responsibility for her unloved police commissioners in England and Wales.

The kitten-heeled Home Secretary’s blocking a central register of interests to keep tabs on cop chiefs elected with universal indifference.

The Cabinet Minister should be charged with obstructing justice for turning a blind eye to business conflicts and the jobs-for-mates scandals.

Mali mission could lead to more

TRAINING the Mali army and lending the French a couple of RAF cargo planes is a justified humanitarian intervention against gangs of hand-chopping Islamist extremists.

But we should beware being sucked into a West African version of Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya.

I recall a No 10 official admitting he was excited to be in No 10 when bombing Libya started.

Military action makes Prime Ministers feel important and when it comes to wars, Cameron yearns to be the heir to Blair.

Do as we say

MILD-mannered Attorney General Dominic Grieve is reported to have been with an unruly Oxford University gang in 1977 when Tory rival Damian Green, now the Police Minister, was chucked into the River Cherwell.

We all have embarrassing pasts but spare us the lectures on anti-social behaviour when nearly every member of this sermonising Government was a rowdy Hooray Henry.

Look after elderly or colonial outposts?

WHAT should we spend money on: care for the elderly or military ­reinforcements to the Falklands?

The Foreign Office refuses to publish the – presumably enormous – cost of clinging to rocks 8,000 miles from Britain in the South Atlantic.

Tories quick to demand Labour identify cuts are even faster to splash the cash when it comes to flag-waving in colonial outposts.

Points of disorder 1

I’LL give you 985,315 reasons why David ­Miliband isn’t straining at the leash to join younger brother Ed’s frontbench team.

That’s how much he’s earned on top of his MP’s pay, including £125,000 for 15 days work as a director of Sunderland, the football club I buy tickets to watch.

Miliband Senior should be issued an ultimatum: join the Shadow Cabinet in 2014 or quit as South Shields MP in 2015.

Politics and winning elections isn’t a part-time job.

Points of disorder 2

THE son of a Scots Guardsman got in touch after I wrote about the Jarrow March to say his father was ordered to shoot protesters if they rioted in London.

David Croston said dad Arthur, in 1926 stationed in Chelsea Barracks, would’ve disobeyed the instruction.

The Jarrow March was peaceful yet the order to open fire reveals a jumpy Tory Government of the day was terrified of men walking 300 miles for work. I wonder how the current mob would react to sustained industrial action.

Speaker's corner

“I DO think this Government needs not just sticking up to, but a good kicking.”

So said Douglas Carswell who is a Tory, not a Labour, MP. Cameron’s Conservative enemies seem to hate the Prime Minister more than his Labour opponents.

Perhaps it’s because they know him better too.

Going up

MILIBAND finally deciding to champion Britain in Europe is a chance for Douglas Alexander to shine, a Shadow Foreign Secretary who is one of Labour’s shrewdest strategists.

Going down

LAW-BREAKING Tory lawmaker Michael Fabricant’s an idiot, not a self-styled “naughty boy” for treating a speed awareness course as a big joke after he was clocked driving too fast.