It's been brought forward

Yes, that speech. You know, the one that has been trailed like some blockbuster movie for weeks on end. The one that will be made in the Netherlands. That one. What's his name's speech on you know what. Got it, David Cameron's speech on ... well, we really don't know what it will be on as it has been trailed variously as being on Europe, on Britain's "relations with the EU", on the referendum and on David Cameron's political future. (Well, OK, I made the last one up.)

The Boss is ahead of me, as usual. (I suspect he does not drink quite as much coffee as I do.) But I, too, noticed that the reason for moving the speech from January 22nd to the 18th was that somebody realized that the original date was "the 50th anniversary of the Franco-German peace accord, the Elysée treaty, the formal ratification of the coal and steel agreement that led to the formation of the EU". As the Guardian adds: "A speech attacking the current shape of the EU on such a day was seen as diplomatically unwise."

Mind you, those attacks are likely to be very mild and more like a slap on the wrist then a real blow.

I assume this means that the Boy-King and his advisers have finally worked out what he will say though I still assume that it will be an anodyne speech that will please nobody. At least, he will have no excuse for not being in the Chamber for the Second Reading the Succession to the Crown Bill 2012 - 13. Unless he considers celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Elysée treaty is more important than a serious change in this country's constitutional set-up.