David Cameron’s acknowledgement that he was not greeted with a “wall of love” at last week’s EU summit demonstrated a flair for languid British understatement. In reality, the prime minister’s long-anticipated demand for a renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the EU has been met with a mixture of anger and incomprehension.

The UK’s demands are doubtless inconvenient for the other EU leaders. But Mr Cameron is simply playing out the latest act in Britain’s ambivalent relationship with the rest of the European continent, a drama that has been going for centuries.

Britain’s debate about Europe echoes arguments that were taking place nearly 300 years ago when Sir Robert Walpole became [THE FIRST?]the first prime minister[OR IS THIS WHEN HE BECAME CHANCELLOR?]. Robert Tombs, the Cambridge historian, notes that Walpole, a Whig, believed Britain should play a “major role in Europe”, while his Tory [MIGHT HELP TO SAY HE WAS A WHIG]opponents preferred “overseas trade, not European commitments”.