That veto

There's a whole range of opinion in the press this morning about David Cameron's veto, from 'Now we no longer have a seat at the top table' to 'At last we have stood up to the euro-bullies'.

To be honest, the going of separate ways has been looming for years. It was obvious that Britain had no intention of participating in the euro and in the supranational bodies which they now deem necessary, and, as a large country, we don't like to see the whole thing stitched up by France and Germany. The UK could have nodded through a treaty we didn't agree with, but there would then be pressure on us to put our money where our mouth is, and in any case, nodding through something we didn't like in the cause of European integration was what we did last time, and the time before and the time before that.

I think history will see this moment as both sides accepting what should have been perfectly obvious from the start.

It is going to be a bit messy, though: Britain will be on to the lawyers regularly if it sees the 17 poking their noses into what is the business of the 27 (tax harmonisation, for example) or if it sees them use the 27's resources - eg the European Commission - for their private business.

In the meantime the changes announced to not constitute a saving of the euro, either in the short term where a huge rescue operation has to be prepared in case Italy and Spain no longer have access to the debt markets, nor in the longer term, where they must even up  the competitiveness of individual members, to stop the same crisis happening again in the next few years.

That is where the real work has to be done.