Another quite good speech from Blair on Europe. The problem has never been so much his words or his views on Europe - some of his speeches have been outstanding, even if as today his views are far from perfect - but his willingness actually to do anything about them.

I am persuaded that when he says things about improving Europe - and particularly about going out and making the case for it to the public - he does actually mean it. It’s just when it comes to actually doing anything about it, it never seemed to happen. Days from announcing his departure, he is hardly going to start now. British pro-Europeans feel extremely let down Blair on Europe - much more so that by Major, for example, who didn’t think of himself as a European as Blair does - and it’s entirely his own fault.

The next Prime Minister, by contrast, has made no pretence of saying the right thing about Europe - moving from being a decent pro-European when in opposition, to one of its loudest critics when in office. And despite some speculation, no-one seems to have the faintest idea what his approach will be from Number Ten.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an excellent one-day conference at Chatham House, organised by Stephen Quigley for the European Movement to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. A lot of very eminent people - including Kenneth Clarke, Peter Mandelson, and Charles Kennedy - said mostly the same absolutely right things about the EU’s great successes.

There was much less - though some - discussion of what happens next in the story of Britain’s relationship with Europe. I think there is some chance that the logjam of a British public - and especially a British press - hostile to ”˜Europe’ might be about to start to break. I’ve tried to put my ideas together into an article setting out my view of the situation - which you can now read on my website here.