The European Union’s financial services action plan is not the ideal topic for an after-dinner speech. So it was perhaps unsurprising that an audience of City of London financiers gave Charlie McCreevy, the EU’s internal market commissioner, a rough ride when he attempted to address them on that subject at a dinner last month. When the comedienne Ruby Wax, who followed Mr McCreevy to the podium, remarked: “He spoke for 20 minutes; it seemed like 20 years”, she was reportedly greeted with riotous applause.

But the reception for Mr McCreevy reflected more than wine-fuelled impatience. It was also a measure of the deterioration in relations between Brussels and the City.