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Did they think he was bluffing or didn't they care? Europe's leaders heard David Cameron threaten to veto a new EU treaty, but few - including, I ought to say, me - believed that he'd actually do it.

The prime minister argues that signing up without the safeguards he wanted would have allowed the eurozone to dictate new rules which would have damaged the City of London as a global financial capital.

The institutions of Europe, the civil servants in the commission, the judges in the court would, he thinks, have become their servants.

Now he faces a different risk though: isolation, as most perhaps all the other countries not yet in the eurozone look set to decide to take part in this new euroclub.

At home David Cameron will be hailed as a hero by Eurosceptics who are likely to demand, now, renegotiation and a referendum.

Others will condemn him for losing what he referred to as a game of chess to a master tactician - President Sarkozy of France - who'd always argued that Britain had no role influencing a currency they'd chosen to stay out of.

Well he for one has got his way.