For years they have resisted the dream of “ever closer” European Union; viewed from the mainland they are a tribe of backward-looking island-dwellers, inspired by their warrior queen, Margaret Thatcher. But Britain’s eurosceptics remain convinced they are now in the ascendancy.

When the people of Ireland voted “no” to the European Union’s Lisbon treaty (designed to streamline the workings of the EU) in June, they did more than put the brakes on 50 years of European integration. They sent an electric pulse across the Irish Sea, re-energising one of Europe’s most powerful – and complex – political movements. Didn’t the Irish vote prove the British eurosceptics were right all along: that given a chance to express their views on Europe, the people would say “no”? Vindicated and inspired, the bards of Britain’s tabloid press went to work with renewed gusto to ensure the good work done by the Irish was not undone. “Oi Sarky, now we’re really narky over EU treaty malarky,” waxed The Sun – the eurosceptic standard-bearer – expressing its scorn for attempts by Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, to “bully” the Irish into voting again on the treaty so that this time they got the answer right.