Cameron’s EPP pledge would not have plagued him if he’d been less evasive

David Cameron had hoped to travel to Prague in secret last week. News that he had entered the final stages of negotiations with his Czech counterparts over the Tories’ future in the European Parliament would only increase expectation of the deal which has eluded him for the last seven months, and heighten the derision if he failed. While his visit did become public knowledge, he returned without the British press scenting what the Lidové Noviny had printed: that he will travel to Strasbourg later this month to form a new alliance of Eurosceptic parties, and finally quit the European Peoples’ Party.

Anything involving an acronym in Brussels usually loses the interest of most Westminster politicians, and it seems that Mr Cameron paid little attention to the detail of leaving the EPP when he first came up with the idea as a leadership contender. The EPP is a group of European centre-right parties, which joined forces for maximum collective clout in the European Parliament.