Keep quiet Dave

I find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable position of hoping that Dave Cameron can hold the line with his own party.

If he is forced to say anything new on a Lisbon referendum before the Election then it will only be to the bad. Both Tory troop rallying, media pleasing and - to be fair - rousing the core Tory vote will cry out for him to take a tougher line on "Europe".

However, he is smart enough, and presumably well advised enough, to realise that this will create a complete mess at a time when there will be plenty of other challenges for a new Government. He is - I hope - a pragmatist before he is a Little Englander (for all Little Englanderdom is a pragmatic approach to take if you want to run the Tories).

And it will create a complete mess for this country if we spend the next decade squabbling with our European partners. So Dave - much as a return to Tory Euro-splits would make for amusing Sunday newspaper stories - hold that line!