It is ironic that Prime Minister David Cameron’s negotiations on European Union membership should run into last-minute trouble over his attempts to secure protections for the City of London from the consequences of future eurozone integration.

After all, the City itself has hardly been clamouring for these protections, having long since made its peace with the idea of EU regulation. Even officials in London and Brussels privately consider the demands to be largely window-dressing designed to cover up an otherwise largely threadbare list of UK reform demands. More to the point, there is no British industry with more at stake from a failed renegotiation that leads to a British EU exit.