"Only a Conservative majority", he tells is, "will guarantee a referendum on the European Union, which so many of us want. Only a Conservative majority has any intention of forging a renegotiation of Britain's fundamental relationship with the EU".

There seems no end to this madness, the "reform psychosis" that is corroding our body politic – and some of our media. But, on the other hand, even the failing Observer, with its contemptible resort to injecting the epithet "europhobes" into the debate, is seeing the light.

David Cameron's fundamental problem, says Andrew Rawnsley, "is the vast gulf between what other EU states might be prepared to sign up to and what a large segment of the Conservative party are demanding. Even if she wanted to, Angela Merkel cannot bridge that great divide for him. No power on earth can".

Gradually, though, in some quarters the disease is being recognised. Even Conservative Home and the New Statesman are singing from the same hymn sheet.

It takes the New York Times to show its usual feeble grasp of EU/UK affairs, commenting on the recent Merkel visit. Starting well enough, it notes that Mrs Merkel is only one voice among 28 European Union leaders, albeit the most powerful, and that every nation has to agree on treaty changes. This means, it says, "that trying to revamp the treaties to suit the desires of British euro-skeptics has zero chance of success".

The paper goes on: "If the treaties are reopened, of course, Britain should have its wish list. But, at most, it will be able to secure changes such as giving national parliaments a greater say in Europe-wide legislation. Mr. Cameron will waste his political capital if he makes this his priority".

But then it descends to the absurd, telling us, "a better approach would be to work with Ms. Merkel and other leaders to set a clear agenda for what they want the Union to achieve over the next five years, as the German leader proposed".

This is "reform from within", which is all that seems to have emerged from the Merkel/Cameron press conference. All the pair can offer is "ideas like how to cut the excessive interference and meddling by European institutions in our national life", and the "need to guarantee the interests of those in the single market, but not in the euro".

This is so far from the fundamental reform that Cameron proposed last year as to leave only the remnants of his "vision" that is so shallow as to be laughable. "I want Britain to be a positive player in a reformed European Union, and I know that Angela wants a strong Britain in that reformed European Union", he tells us.

And if Mr Cameron thinks that is going to buy him any credit with eurosceptics, then he is more delusional that we could possibly imagine. And that leaves him no place to go. Welcome to planet Cameron.