Donald Macintyre's Sketch: Mission possible: not starring Tom Cruise

David Cameron is a man on a mission, which he set out in what historians will surely come to describe as his “Dear Don” letter. But not, he assured us, “Mission Impossible” He was even asked by the BBC if the “objectives” he was urging on European Council chairman Donald Tusk might in fact be “Mission Quite Possible”

There were various possible answers to this including “I don’t think Tom Cruise is going to want a part in that movie.” Instead he seemed keen to calibrate the difficulty level. ”On whether this is mission impossible, mission possible, mission vaguely possible,….I would say to the BBC you can’t have it both ways. “ One moment the Corporation was trawling round Europe quoting people saying it was “impossible” and the next they were saying it was “very easy”. In fact “ the truth lies somewhere between these two things.”

In the Commons, though, most Eurosceptic MPs, using the resilient Europe minister David Lidington as the day’s punchbag thought it sounded all too “easy”. As in “Is that it? (Bernard Jenkin) “Tinkering round the edges” (David Nuttall) “thin gruel “Jacob Rees Mogg) Or the sarcasm-heavy Peter Bone: “No longer do we have to pretend there’s going to be a substantial renegotiation—we can get on with campaigning to come out. Will the Minister pass on my thanks to the Prime Minister? As shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden had earlier remarked, the anti-European Tories were “desperate to be disappointed. “

This was always going to happen. Not just because the red lines twere getting pinker by the minute, –including on in work benefits for EU migrants. More because it’s never been clearer that this is a man determined to campaign to keep Britain in the EU. The latest Cameronian trope is to not only to say things but to say that he is saying them. As in –for example—“I say to those who are thinking about voting to leave: Think very carefully, because this choice cannot be undone. "

But it’s what he doesn’t say (or says he’s saying) that’s as interesting. Having told Tusk that he will campaign with “all my heart and soul” for a yes vote if he gets his reforms he doesn’t say he’ll do the opposite if he doesn’t. He says that “nothing is ruled out. “ And that it will be a “challenging” negotiation.” And we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us.” Which since we will have to do anyway by the end of 2017 isn’t that threatening.

The subtext of his letter then? “Dear Don I’m trying hard to be reasonable Now you’ve got to help me. Your mate, Dave.”