Now that they have refused to make changes for us except a few puerile promises which they have no intention of living up to, they've had to sit back, shut up and watch the end result of a decade of reviling the "awkward Brits" in our independence referendum.
They all want to chime in, they all want to tell us how bad it would be for them if we left, they all want to give us their good reasons why it would be good for them if the UK stayed. Not one of them has a good reason why it would be good for the UK to stay. Not _one_.
Unfortunately for us, Cameron has sat them down and told them, on no uncertain terms, that if they want a Brexit all they have to do is open their mouths.
So now we get to hear that they're worried.
Only now are they really thinking about what might happen if we leave.
"We need a counterweight to France," the same official added. "If the referendum result is negative, then we've got a real problem - it will be massive."
Another senior member of Merkel's conservatives, speaking on condition of anonymity, was more direct when discussing the EU without Britain: "Everyone will say it is a club of losers."
Quite...
Britain has supported Berlin taking a foreign policy role commensurate with its economic power. But Germany's ambitions are eclipsed by its concerns that a Brexit could allow Russia to project its power into a destabilised EU.
Perhaps they might have thought about these things when they forced Cameron to veto the transaction tax. When they threatened to throw the UK off it's non voting seat on the board of the ECB, when they tried to marginalise us and browbeat us.
But, true to form, they only see that the light at the end of the tunnel is a train coming when the fruit of their labours is, possibly, about to run them down.
If we vote to remain, after everything that has not been done, we can only expect even more of the same and even more dismissiveness....
In discussions with BIL and SIL, I was talking to them about the position of the UK in the world. I reminded them that the US was all for Bombing the Syrian government, until the UK said NO. Hollande popped up and said France was willing to take the role from the UK and go in with them. Obama simply brushed them off.
Why? Because the UK's position in the world is head and shoulders above France and the rest of the EU. If Britain and the US go into something we can sway the entire world. If Britain does not or the US does not, then groups of others find it extremely difficult to do so.
Whenever the EU have their Loser 27+1 meetings, everyone tries to forget that the UK is, internationally, a world player and spend their time trying to undermine us and saying "who do they think they are".
Today they have a sharp reminder that they have far more to fear from the UK leaving the EU than the UK does if it leaves the EU.....
I would dearly love to see our own press saying so.
