The Guardian yesterday summarised the opening of the Lib Dems' conference as follows:

The rising star Nick Clegg MP will kick off the agenda with a motion on Europe, seeking to steer Europhile activists towards a more hard-headed approach. As a former MEP, he is well-placed to persuade them that reform does not mean rejection of the European project.

Mr Clegg is indeed a rising star in the Lib Dems, as well as being a good writer and a Yorkshire MP. But as a former MEP, he presumably thinks he has pro-European support in the bag and is trying, like Laurent Fabius, to reach out to the Eurosceptics in his party.

He needs to be careful: this is a tactic that many pro-Europeans have succumbed to in the past, and it's backfired on them. Some, hoping for cheap gallery applause from the Eurosceptic media, put career before principle and end up helping the cause they oppose. They reap the whirlwind.