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I'm just back from a fascinating but all too predictable meeting in Brussels with a senior - a very senior - EU official.
The feeling is, he told me, that Britain has now 'crossed the line' and 'will not be allowed to block further progress'. The view is, he said (and he was talking about other Member States rather than just Eurocrats) that the UK has 'blackmailed the rest of us for too long, and we have lost patience.' If we don't agree to the development of a deeper, full on political entity then 'they can go away and link up with the Faroe Islands'.
Here was the really chilling aspect of it: 'Look at what nearly happened on Friday to Poland. Who the hell do they think they are, threatening to disrupt everything. They should be grateful we let them in in the first place. Well, we taught them a lesson on Friday. If you don't sign up, we'll go ahead anyway and build a new structure without you. And guess what - they signed up.' That, I was told, was how the UK would be treated from now on, not least because while there was room for doubt over Tony Blair, who was felt to be 'a good European', there was no doubt about Gordon Brown, 'who makes clear what he thinks of the EU every time he comes to ECOFIN - he issues a press release and does his paperwork for two hours then goes home'. So he won't be allowed to impede further deepening.
As for the idea that this is just a few amendments rather than the old treaty in new guise: my interlocutor simply grinned. Really, never underestimate the force of the drive behind the project to take the EU ever deeper. The elites behind it will brook no opposition to their plans.
The remarks I report here are not in the least unusual in Brussels. We have to put every bit of pressure we can on Gordon Brown to call a referendum. But even if he relents, and we win - as the French and Dutch voters will tell you, don't think for a moment that's the end of it.
I'm on my way to Paris now to talk to some Sarkozy people about UK politics. I'll report back.