It could even make some Tories wonder if they have really been fighting the wrong battles

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It could even make some Tories wonder if they have really been fighting the wrong battles.. In this age of change, as we sweep towards the 21st century and a world of Internet and computers, and away from the simple verities of the 20th century like world wars and genocide, I find that many people feel they have nothing safe and sure left to hold on to. Here, for instance, is a letter from a reader which says: "Dear Mr Kington, I can sense that, beneath the trendy flash and modish references of your column, you are as much of an arch-conservative as I am. It seems increasingly likely that the public mood could start changing faster than looked possible before the election, as a result of a successful, and relatively non-integrationist, IGC Britain remains hostile to grand integrationist designs And so do Cook and Blair. Could you comfort readers like me by providing us with a list of things that never change and which we can keep in mind, especially those of us who have been recently saddened or sidelined by progress?" Willingly, Mr Portillo. A sure sign of the new alignment is that the Italians have started complaining vociferously to London about all this talk of France, Germany and Britain as the "big three" of Europe. To be sure of this change of public mood, the government needs to make headway on lifting the beef ban - which it has always held up as the most catastrophic failure of government policy.Cook shows every sign of knowing this; but he is guarded It will, he says, need time.

And so on.It's almost impossible to underestimate the impact of this change in language. Particularly since there are growing signs - evident in Cook's talks with Kinkel this week - that the Germans are now anxious to get through the IGC with the minimum of fuss in order to clear the decks for EMU. On the European Parliament he even seemed to be baffled why the Tory sceptics oppose the new powers he and Blair are ready to concede. So far from being an integrationist move, he says, it will help Strasbourg to impose a "democratic check" on the EU's other institutions. It's "totally weird" of the Tories to oppose ending the veto on anti-fraud measures when it simply means that a fraudulent country can avoid penalties. And it should only apply in areas like immigration and justice if all 15 states agreed and probably more than half - perhaps 10 - agreed to take part.

And he argues that Britain is much likelier to get its way on all this if it doesn't make a virtue out of challenging every single other proposal. Cook is careful not to promise a successful outcome: "By not fighting needless battles," he says, "we will be able to focus energies on the battles we must win."But he is also careful to stress that in several, if not all, of the areas in which Britain is prepared to reach agreement, she has a specific interest in doing so. On this last - and potentially still one of the most difficult subjects for Amsterdam - Cook was clear: such flexibility shouldn't apply to the main economic areas of the EU or to foreign policy. Is it so unimaginable that we could see headlines in it like "Blair pulls off deal for Britain"?Cook's strength is that he has a persuasive story to tell about the forthcoming IGC which belies the Tories' pre-election rhetoric about the surrenders being prepared by Labour.