Could we stop it?

I wonder if Britain could ever have stopped the euro. That is to say, if we had argued firmly against it, as opposed to cowering on the sidelines apologetically, could we have persuaded them that there can be no currency union without a fiscal union?

We shall never know, but a similar opportunity is arising now. The others have made a deal which is outside the EU, and therefore cannot use the EU institutions - not just the buildings as has been suggested, but the civil servants, the advisers in the Central Bank - to further their deal. To use these institutions, and I don't reckon they can get anything done without them, they would need a separate agreement at EU level, that is to say including Britain, they they should be allowed to do so.

Cameron's first reaction - 'you can't use this building to do it' - has now been tempered somewhat and there are signs that he is apologetically nuzzling up to Angela Merkel, sorry for causing so much trouble.

But Britain has a golden opportunity to say 'we don't agree with this path you are taking. We're not joining it but we don't agree that it's good for you. The proposed budgetary constraints, the fines, all these things were there when the euro started, and it was France and Germany who broke them first. They don't work, and the austerity programme won't work, we are too good friends to you all to allow you to embark on this course of self-destruction. If you feel you have to commit suicide, you do it on your own.'

I don't think Cameron will, though.