While the BBC, ITV and Sky News all persist in presenting Britain's veto of closer political union (merely to save the Euro) as some sort of disaster, the British public do not see it that way. In fact, almost every poll is highly revealing that by far the majority of the country backs David Cameron's stance.
The fact is, there is a REAL opportunity here for the Conservatives. Let the Liberal Party bring down the coalition. The country doesn''t like them anyway. The Conservatives and the new political fourth force UKIP (could soon be third, above the Lib Dims) - where most conservatives like me are currently residing - could tie up and run a campaign almost exclusively on a ticket of an EU exit. It would likely win by a considerable margin.
Europe cannot afford, especially in its present state, to have a major free trade, de-regulated economy like Britain offshore attracting massive inward investment. Neither, we should remember, is the Eurozone cured of its disastrous ills. Add to that the once the profligate southern European states realise what austerity 'with teeth' (i.e. addional penalties if they don't massively cut domestic spending) from Brussels is like, and the street riots we've seen in European capitals recently will be nothing to what comes next.
Against all this, Britain will be seen to be flourishing (much as Norway - outside the EU - now is) in terms of global trade and with industries not shackled by stultifying European regulation.
It should be realised once and for all, that any notion of a (Gallic-inspired) United States of Europe being as successul as a United States of America is cloud cuckoo-land. America is a collection of states with the same culture, the same language, the same (dare I say it) Anglo-Saxon worldview that backs free enterprise. Europe has none of these things. Expect whatever treaty Merkozy double-act proposes, to set Europe, yet again, on a political path to crash and burn.
I wonder which country that' stood alone,'and was excoriated for it, would then be expected to help pick up the pieces. No change there then.