Cameron's message to EU: Shut up and do what you're bloody told, you ghastly Krauts.

David Cameron has promised a referendum in the highly unlikely event that the EU Reform Treaty is not ratified by the time he takes office. More generally, he has shown that his attitude to Europe would be just as constructive as Margaret Thatcher's.

He added: "I think Margaret Thatcher showed in recovering the British rebate that if you have a very clear, very straightforward approach in Europe and say look, we want to be in the European Union ... but we're not happy with the status quo and there are some things we want to change, if you're single minded about that then there's no reason you cannot achieve your objectives."

Of course, given that Margaret Thatcher gave us the Single European Act, and her successor, via the Maastricht Treaty, gave us the Euro, there could be a case for saying that they both made strong advances in European unity. But I don't think that's what Mr Cameron means.