The trouble with these hyper-exciting times in Westminster and Brussels is that it leads people into all kinds of extreme and unsustainable positions, forces people into extreme corners, and polarises otherwise fairly moderate opinion. When I got into politics, I remember one wise old bird telling me that there are three subjects on which there is no point in expanding when you meet someone of a different opinion to yourself: Europe, foxhunting and abortion. He was right.

The fact of the matter is that there is much of good in Europe and at the same time a great deal that is bad for Britain; and overall, it is a hugely complex and technical matter to try to work out which is which. That was very much the point which that brilliant academic, MP and explorer Rory Stewart made when he spoke in North Wiltshire last Friday – that our personal view on Europe is at the end of the day instinctive; it is a gut matter rather than an academically provable one.

Before the PM’s Statement on Monday (and why wasn’t Nick Clegg there?), I attended a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative Friends of Israel. Operations in Afghanistan are being conducted under a NATO flag, those in Libya under approval from the UN. The Climate Change discussions in Durban, which are arguably a great deal more important in the long term than the EU squabbles, were discussions amongst free and independent nation states. The Commonwealth makes a huge and important contribution to discussions and friendship amongst member countries. All of those institutions and others are arguably so much more important than the inward-looking institutional arguments which typify the EU.

One of my close friends had a go at me last weekend calling me a ‘Little Englander’ for my Eurosceptic views. I don’t blame him for it, although fear he has completely misunderstood my stance. I am a true internationalist – I want close working relations with the rest of the world, rather than an ever-richer little club in the North West of the European continent, which would have the tendency of excluding it. You don’t have to be a member of a rich man’s club with binding and restrictive rules in order to do well in the world – ask America and Japan, India and China, Brazil and Australia if they feel the need to give up their sovereignty in order to succeed. Of course they wouldn’t.

And anyhow, I can’t be a Little Englander, because by birth I am a Scot – so little Britisher if you must, but internationalist would be much preferred! So I salute the Prime Minister for standing up for Britain, and now will sit quietly and watch as the Eurozone countries continue their struggle to sort out their failing currency. There is so much more to worry about at a time like this, and I hope that we can now get on with setting about putting right so much that is wrong with our country, and set discussions on Europe to one side, at least for the present. (And I shan’t try to persuade you on foxhunting or abortion either.)