David Maddox: Woes of the euro open door for a closer relationship with our continental friends

THERE were a few eyebrows raised yesterday when William Hague made a speech suggesting that Britain needed to be closer to Europe, not least from some of his Eurosceptic Conservative colleagues.

This is the man, after all, who as Tory leader had the most Eurosceptic party manifesto in recent history in the 2001 general election.

The central message of that campaign was that voters had just days to save the pound.

In fact, as it turned out, they did not and the pound is still with us, which actually gives a clue to why Mr Hague and the Tory leadership is suddenly more relaxed about the European Union.

Some have muttered that those Europhile Lib Dems now in coalition with the Tories - not least former MEPs Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne - have somehow infected the upstanding British Tory minds around the table.

But the reality is simple. The most divisive issue about EU membership in British politics, membership of the euro, has been killed off, at least for now.

After what has happened to the euro economies and the way Germany in particular has been forced to bail out places like Greece, nobody in their right mind, not even the Lib Dems, would want Britain to join. The euro's woes and the whole miserable affair of the Lisbon Treaty have also put paid to any suggestion of further integrating the EU, even though the logical conclusion of what has happened suggests that some nations should lose control of their economies if the euro is to survive.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel's tentative suggestion of further integration was met with groans from her fellow national leaders and an effective put down by Mr Cameron. All this means that the Tories can work quite easily in partnership with the Lib Dems in pursuing friendlier relationships in Europe without the fear of having to tackle further losses of national powers which would have the "No Turning Back" lobby in the Tory party on the warpath.

The only issue remains over the Conservative's'insistence on sitting with some slightly dubious parties in the European Parliament, not that many people care what happens there.