Indeed, you could argue that the only language our friends understand is an initial no – and that is the only thing that will really bring them to the table, make them focus on the need for reform. Britain’s relationship with Europe has already changed, in the sense that we are not members of the dominant political project – the single currency, with all its further erosions of democracy. We are already members of a very different club from France and Germany. But there are other members of that club; others who are not in the euro but who want free trade. It would be no bad thing to lead that group, to formalise what is already a semi-divorce.