Cameron has the bad habit for a politician of making rash promises without thinking through the implications.

So, when his electoral prospects were being pressed hard by ukip and needing to appease the europhobic wing of his own party, he promised he'd demand changes to the EU or there'd be an in or out referendum on membership of the EU before 2020.

Then gradually, the hard reality began to confront him. He personally is on the business wing of the party and wants to stay in the EU, but he has created a timetable that means it is impossible to get any meaningful changes before a referendum.

And now this mess of proposals and barely thought through aspirations.

The public mood is hostile to the EU, conditioned by years of hostility and scare stories from the right leaning tabloids. The migrant crisis in the EU may well be the final nail in the coffin of the UK's membership. The imminent collapse of the single currency and Schengen certainly doesn't help. The treatment of Greece has alienated many who were sympathetic to membership.

Cameron lost control of this process the moment he made his rash promise, because his function was to prevent giving the public a referendum when the result was already locked in by tabloid conditioning.

All the politicking in the world will not change that

keep to the Fen Causeway