Merkel and Cameron seem to have got on well at the Brussels budget summit which ended on February 8. At least in their present incarnations, the German tradition of consensus and the Anglican tradition of compromise have shown that they can work together. In France, Cameron's speech produced outbursts of Anglophobia, for example by Jean-Marc Vittori in Les Echos: "Europe without the UK would do better than the UK without Europe. Since no exclusion procedure exists, we can only hope that the British themselves decide their eviction by referendum in 2017. With one brake less, Europe will then have more chances to accelerate."

No wonder Merkel does not want to be left alone with the more or less hysterical French, as Konrad Adenauer put it in 1953. But one may doubt whether Cameron's approach to Europe will remain popular with his own party. Just as they have wearied of his coalition with the Liberal Democrats, so they may become suspicious of his alliance with Merkel. His Anglican via media may disintegrate, or he may be removed from No 10 before he can travel very far along it. But since British policy towards Europe has long been highly contradictory, it is also possible that Cameron possesses the gifts needed to lend it a degree of coherence, and even to make it work.