Mr Cameron, you have done Britain a great service

I'll tell you what I thought.

Here was Mr Cameron preparing the ground for the usual capitulation before the altar of Europe.

I knew what we could expect from him: “I’ve said I’d veto any dangerous treaty. And I didn’t veto this one. so there’s nothing dangerous to Britain about this treaty.”

I bet you thought the same, that we were about to have another sellout over Europe from a snake oil salesman politician. Well Mr Cameron, you are owed an apology.

You have proved your mettle and steel as a leader. You have done the country proud. And you have done something even more important: you have shown that your words mean something and that not all poli­ticians are untrustworthy.

Make no mistake. the events of Thursday night in Brussels mark a defining moment not just for the eU but for British politics too. For the first time David Cameron has shown that he is more than a PR merchant who will do anything for office. He has acted as a true British statesman, putting our national interest first.IT IS true that the Prime Minister had little alternative but to use his veto.

Had he signed up to a proposed treaty which promised to wreck the City he might not have been able to secure Parliamentary approval and would probably have provoked open warfare in the Conservative Party, as well as being universally derided. so in one sense it was an easy decision for him.

But that has not stopped other British prime ministers from allowing the EU to push ahead with treaties dragging us towards ever closer union.

It was Baroness thatcher after all who signed the single European Act in 1986, which set in train so much of what has followed. summits are about more than cold logic.

When human beings meet, other factors come into play. And it cannot have been easy for Mr Cameron to stand up to the pressure from Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, knowing that Britain could end up alone among the 27 EU member states. But he did just that and deserves the highest praise.

Because the EU applecart has not merely been upset it has been tossed into the air and come crashing down in pieces.

Forget about the supposed issue of the moment: the survival of the euro. It will survive in whatever form and with whatever members Germany and France want. Yesterday’s summit will have almost no impact on that.

The real change has come to the EU itself.

It is no longer a question of if but when the EU collapses. Indeed one could argue that it has already been destroyed.

Think about what has happened. the UK vetoed a proposed new treaty. Instead of leaving it there or finding an alternative that could be agreed Merkozy, as the German and French leaders have come to be known, decided to ignore the EU altogether as a vehicle for their plans and draw up an entirely separate treaty between the 17 euro members and whichever other EU member states choose to sign up.

In doing that they did not merely bring about a two­speed europe they superseded the eU altogether.

With some of the dust now having settled it seems clear that France and Germany wanted this from the start.

Britain’s demands were, in the scheme of what was being proposed, relatively trivial. And Mr Cameron was heavily criticised before the summit for his timid negotiating stance in refusing to use the euro crisis as a golden opportunity to demand serious reform.

Yet Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy were unwilling to allow even the tiniest concession to the British national interest. One has to conclude that they did not want Britain to be part of any deal, so little effort did they put into gaining our agreement.

Another conclusion follows from that: with Britain standing alone what possible reason is there for us to remain in the EU?

WE HAVE swathes of unwanted and damaging legislation imposed on us.

The justification has always been that is the price we pay for being part of the club and to have influence. But we are now by our own choice formally excluded from the new club­ within ­the ­club.

And it has been made very clear that when we object to some­ thing our view will simply be ignored.

Don’t fall for the myth that if we were to leave our trade would collapse. EU member states need our trade as much as we need theirs.

In the space of one summit the entire EU debate has changed.

Until 4.30am on Friday those who wanted us to leave the eU still faced a battle to persuade the country of their case. No longer.

As of now the difficult case to make is the one for us to stay in the EU. so the arguments in recent weeks about a referendum are over.

With 26 EU member states agreeing a separate treaty, leaving the UK alone as a member of the existing EU, then even those who do not accept the case for withdrawal must surely accept that the British people have to be given their say on the new arrangements.

It is not the UK which would be leaving the EU. The EU has left us.

Mr Cameron has shown that he is the man to trust with the national interest.

Now that he has changed the game we trust that he will offer the referendum which the new rules of engagement require.