DM says that DC asked for safeguards against “phantom threats.”
If the safeguards weren’t needed then there would have been no harm in the 26 giving them.
The fact that the safeguards are needed is obvious from the fact that the 26 could not to give them.
(If you ask someone to promise not to do something and they refuse to promise, you can be certain they will do what you don’t want.)
By asking, DC revealed the truth of the situation. By refusing, Sarkozy confirmed it. After that the veto was inevitable.
Those who say DC should not have asked, implicitly accept the financial consequences of such inaction – and need to explain how they would deal with the subsequent loss of tax revenues from a shrinking City.
(Note the FTT – which is a tax on pension funds and other investors, not bankers – would not raise money to be spent in Britain – the money would go to the EU to use for projects in far flung places.)
Huw Sayer 
Just to remind ourselves how we got to a veto – these two articles from the Guardian on 5 and 7 Dec – here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/05/cameron-tory-eurosceptics-eu-treaty?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 – Note: “As Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel called on all 27 EU leaders to agree to a revision of the LISBON TREATY in order to enforce tough new fiscal rules in the eurozone” and Cameron’s statement “there are very important things we want to safeguard, not least the SINGLE MARKET” – My emphasis.
And here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/07/sarkozy-merkel-two-speed-eu-plan?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 Note: ” Merkel and Sarkozy said the eurogroup’s 17 leaders would hold monthly summits during the crisis, and install a permanent president of the eurogroup as well as a ministerial structure to run the body” and “Merkel and Sarkozy also called for EU treaties to be reopened and changed to write new rules for the euro” (so for them to later complain that Cameron was trying to reopen single market rules is a bit rich).
Also “criticised by other EU countries, including hard core members of the eurozone, for its lack of accountability and for acting like an unelected, undemocratic directorate for running Europe.”
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