When the euro was launched in 1999, the British were constantly being warned that if they refused to join the European single currency, they would eventually find themselves marginalised within the European Union. The Brits scoffed at this notion. But it seems to be true. A desperate deal to extricate the euro-zone from the Greek crisis is currently being hammered out, a few floors above where I’m sitting, here in the gloomy Justus Lipsius building in Brussels. But the British are essentially irrelevant to the negotiations. And happy to be.

Gordon Brown, still our prime minister, was on my train to Brussels this afternoon. (He was sitting in the next door carriage, guarded by some burly looking security men.) The train only got in a little after 4pm, by which time the French and German leaders had already hammered out the basics of the deal in Brussels. The agreement looks like a classic bit of euro-fudge – there might be loans to Greece, with Europe taking the lead and the IMF serving as back-up. Or possibly, the other way around. The text will be revised further this evening at a special meeting just for the 16 countries that are members of the euro-zone. By this time the other eleven EU countries – including the British – will have been ushered out of the room. Read more