AS Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, noted – the genie is now out of the bottle on Europe.
David Cameron's mighty gamble is based on a number of unknowns and what ifs. The age of uncertainty has begun.
The Prime Minister believes, if he is returned to power in 2015 with a majority government, he will need only two years to persuade our European partners to accede to a future Conservative government's wish list on repatriating powers.
And, intriguingly, he failed to answer what would happen if they refused, leaving open the possibility he could lead the campaign to get Britain out.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel summoned up her best diplomatic response, saying she was willing to discuss Britain's wishes, some of her continental colleagues were not so co-operative.
Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, insisted the UK could not seek an a la carte EU menu but must, like everyone else, stick to the set one, while Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian premier, accused Mr Cameron of playing with fire.
The people of Scotland, facing a referendum on Scotland's place in the UK next year, will, if they say no, face another one three years down the line on the UK's place in Europe. And if they say yes in 2014, there is the possibility that while the Government at Holyrood is trying to get an independent Scotland into the European Union, the Government at Westminster will be trying to get what remains of the UK out.
Alternatively, it could be Mr Cameron succeeds and gets the reformed Europe he seeks with a "reset" UK relationship, where powers are repatriated. He could end up with a much better deal for the UK than Alex Salmond can get as head of the government of a newly independent Scotland.
Certainly, in the short-term, the SNP leader and his colleagues believe the Prime Minister is playing into their hands on Europe. The First Minister insisted it was now the "persistent undercurrent of Tory Euroscepticism" which posed the biggest threat to Scotland's position in the EU; in other words, if Scots want Scotland to stay in Europe vote yes in next year's referendum.
The Nationalists even insisted the Conservatives were now the true separatists.
It was interesting to note how some of the passages Mr Cameron used on issues like democratic consent could easily have been uttered by Mr Salmond about Scotland's relationship with the UK.
In the Commons, the SNP's Mike Weir pointed out the UK Government had condemned the Scottish Government for spending two years on holding the independence referendum – citing time and again the wait was causing uncertainty for jobs and investment – yet the Tory-led administration was proposing a "five-year marathon" until the EU referendum. Mr Cameron gave a garbled response, which did not answer the point.
In the heat of PMQs, Ed Miliband insisted Labour was completely against an in-out referendum as the uncertainty would not help jobs and growth, which, he insisted, was the country's priority.
Later, the Labour leader's apparently blanket "no" was nuanced, with aides suggesting no-one could know what the future held.
This general position is shared by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, which means the issue of Europe has opened up yet another deep fissure in the Coalition.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article