David Cameron may be publicly vilified by his European counterparts but I suspect he is being toasted in private. The remarkably swift end to negotiations brought about by Cameron’s exercise of the veto has conveniently allowed the European Union to once again avoid the tricky task of consulting the electorate. A cynic would suggest this was the aim all along.

The point is that the use of the UK veto was a mechanism to swiftly put in place a support structure for European banks, which in turn could support European debt markets. Pithy details such as democratic legitimacy cannot be allowed to delay this process.