One evening when I was briefing a journalist on the dangers of European government, he interrupted me to ask if I talked a lot to Gordon Brown about these things. I told him that I didn’t. He said he asked, because he thought many of my critcisms of the EU and its intervention in our affairs were similar to the views of the Chancellor.

I was as delighted as I was suprised by this. Today I am checking my sources! It has been revelaed that Gordon Brown is not going to dig in over the dreadful deal on our budget contributions that Tony Blair made at that fateful EU summit. Their joint legacy will not only be measured in the damage they have done to the very strong pension funds position they inherited, but also in upending the Thatcher settlement on contributions which did reduce them substantailly.

??Gordon may talk the talk on Euroscepticism when brieifng journalists, but he is not making decisions that reflect this. Under the Blair/Brown administration we have surrendered all too many additional powers to Brussels, and now are going to have to pay more for the privilege! It’s one cheer for keeping us out of the Euro, but two lost cheers for signing us up to practially everything else bar the Euro.

It is interesting to see how opinion has suddenly changed on the new Prime Minister. Under daily fire from the SNP, the Conservatives and the Blairites, he and his supporters have now managed to alienate important people in the past and present civil srvice and the CBI who are joining in the bombardment. It is still a long time until he can try the crown on for real. Mr Milliband, and the Blairite plotters behind Charles Clarke, must be enjoying things at last as the front runner runs into??heavy fire??on all sides.

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