To EU’s leaders, poison released by David Cameron’s Brexit blunder has lost its sting

Aspects of Britain’s relationship with the EU, including co-operation on justice and policing and the Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland, are predicated on British membership of the convention, said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. “It’s not just an emotional thing, it really matters to the EU,” he said.

...Nor was the problem just the referendum itself — and Cameron’s apparent belief he could win it without breaking sweat. According to Grant, the decision to hold the vote followed a series of unforced errors by the former prime minister.

...Most fundamentally, Cameron badly misjudged how much he could reform the EU in the run-up to the Brexit referendum. “He was disliked for not being clubbable, he stood apart and didn’t really get how the EU worked,” said Grant. “He was a bit of a British bull in an EU china shop.”