The iceberg that could sink David Cameron's plans to keep Britain in Europe

For Charles Grant, the director of the pro-EU Centre for European Reform, the risk is that the Chancellor may find himself “dressing up modest measures as if they were real protection for single market and City”, when in truth, they are nothing of the kind.

All this could be dismissed as too abstruse to sway the average voter – perhaps that is Mr Osborne’s great hope – but if the broader notion gains traction the fix is fundamentally flimsy; that is just a fig leaf that will not protect the UK from the rising tides of European integration, then Mr Osborne has a problem.