For a generation now the Tories have shown a heroic instinct for self-immolation over Europe. Whatever deal or concession is made, it can be relied on not to last. In January, David Cameron was supposed to have shot Ukip's fox and bought off his restive backbenchers with the promise of an in-out EU referendum by 2017. But a fortnight ago the rightwing anti-Brussels populists took a quarter of the vote in local elections, and now Downing Street is in disarray as Tory cabinet ministers prepare to abstain on a critical referendum amendment to their government programme put down by their own backbenchers.
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