Bernard Jenkin’s question resonates throughout these renegotiations.

The Prime Minister asked for too little.

The first draft offered him considerably less than he asked for.

In the end he got even less.

The good news is the whole process must by now have driven home some basic truths to all UK voters.

The UK is not in charge of its own borders, welfare system or even its economy and banking system.

We need to get the permission of 27 other countries to make modest changes.

They deny us permission for the full change we wish to make.

The whole process gums up the poor working of the EU and dominates a summit when other issues matter.

The UK wants a very different EU from the majority.

So isn’t the good European thing to do to leave?

We and they need strong relationships between the UK and the EU based on trade, mutual co-operation and friendship.

The sooner we do that the better, for their sakes as well as ours.

Their wild ride to political union is not what we want to go on. We don’t need an emergency brake. We need to get out of the vehicle.