Gordon Brown must be looking forward to his first big foreign policy speech as prime minister on Monday as much as a visit to the dentist. He does not seem to have time or taste for Abroad – especially Europe.

Granted, after 10 years of Tony Blair’s missionary foreign adventurism, that is a cause for relief in many quarters. Mr Blair, moreover, blew an opportunity that comes maybe once a generation to change the terms of Britain’s toxic debate on Europe. Pro-euro businessmen in particular felt they were marched to the top of the hill, a former Blair adviser has observed, only to see him “abseil down the other side”.