My suggesting that William Hague might tempt David Cameron to kick into the long grass proposals to leave the European People's Party seems to have rung a few Eurosceptic alarm bells.
"He wouldn't do that... would he?" I asked. The answer, I'm now told, is that the grass won't be that long. He may recommend a delay in forming a new group but not one lasting all the way until 2009.
Now, some of you have dared to suggest that this is not exactly all the talk down the "Dog & Duck". True, but that doesn't mean it's of no consequence.
Europe has damaged the Tories in the past not so much for what they've said but the fact that they appear to care about little else and are divided on the issue. In addition, the longer they stay ahead in the polls the more people will question whether they are ready to form a government. A breach of relations with our key European partners will not exactly help.
That's why the EPP matters.
Further to ... I note that William Hague talked this morning (listen here) of his promise to form "a new group".
So, another possibility looms.
He could advise his new boss not to break his promise (perish the thought) but to meet it very very slowly. He would announce that the Tory party would leave the EPP and form a new group... in 2009. This would allow dissenting MEPs to say they'd met their promises too. David Cameron would have a row with some Eurosceptics but when you're trying to re-position your party that might be bad thing. And it might be better than a row with Merkel and many of his own MEPs.
Now he wouldn't do that... would he?
What on earth you may wonder can go wrong for David Cameron? Six months into the job he's got a 10-point poll lead and is basking in praise from the most unlikely quarters.
I'll tell you what - the same thing that went wrong for Maggie and then Major. It's the issue that three times stopped Ken Clarke - the public's choice - from following them. The subject that the Tory leader has barely uttered a word on since his election. I speak, of course, of the cause of so much neuralgia for the party - Europe.
Today William Hague makes his first speech on the subject as Mr Cameron's shadow foreign secretary. The man who promised to save the pound has been given the task of putting a modernising gloss on Euroscepticism. Out goes any hint that the Tories are backward looking Little Englanders. In comes the idea that they are forward looking reformers urging Europe to pursue free trade and free markets and not new ways to run itself or Britain. (The Sun calls this "going soft" on Europe even though all Mr Hague will have changed is language and tone, and not policy)
What he won't mention though are three letters that are giving him and his party a political headache. They are EPP, and they stand for European People's Party. That's the name for the European movement of the centre right which includes the parties which run 10 European governments, including those in Germany and France and - albeit uncomfortably - has included the Conservative Party for many years too.
Eurosceptic Tories persuaded David Cameron to promise to do something that Mr Hague and indeed Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Howard did not do when they were leader - to get out of a grouping they regard as unreformably federalist. It's a promise that Mr Hague now has to deliver but which is enraging many in Europe.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel - a Christian Democrat - has refused to meet David Cameron because of his stance on the EPP. Merkel has though formed a close bond with Tony Blair and last week met Gordon Brown who hopes to do the same.
Many of Mr Cameron's Euro MPs are even less impressed - leaving a big group will rob them of the right to chair European committees. They say that they promised both their electorates and their European allies that they would stay in the EPP until the next Euro elections - and many will simply refuse to move. Their opposition is fuelled by the news of who their new allies might be - a Polish party they accuse of homophobia, a Lithuanian party they call extreme and a lone Irish republican and a campaigner for Italian pensioners' rights. Mr Hague has been counting on the Czech governing party to give his new group credibility but they are locked into tricky coalition building at home and may not be ready - yet at least - to break coalitions in Europe.
Some Eurosceptics urge the Tories to sit on their own in the European Parliament though that would allow Labour to have enormous fun at their expense. Witness :
"If the Conservatives withdraw from the EPP, Jean-Marie Le Pen will sit there, Mrs. Mussolini will sit here, the Conservative party will sit there and, worst of all, Robert Kilroy-Silk will sit there. Before the hon. Gentleman attacks my leadership in the European Union, he should start to exercise some himself."
