I said last week that the prime minister was isolated in Europe but I didn’t know just how alone he would end up. David Cameron’s decision to walk away from the European table because of pressure from his Eurosceptic backbenches is potentially very dangerous for Britain but it has also placed severe stains on the coalition.

On Friday the deputy prime minister was apparently firmly behind the prime ministers premature use of the veto at the European Council saying he was ‘fully signed up’ to it. But just a few hours later as his own party erupted in outrage he let it be known that he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ by it and claimed he had told the prime minister that his actions were ‘bad for Britain.’

The cracks continued to show as the hours passed. The business secretary was apparently ‘furious’, the Scottish secretary publicly denounced the prime minister’s use of the veto and the energy secretary claimed on the floor of the House that ‘In Europe if you are not in the room you are on the menu.’ And on Tuesday all Lib Dem ministers and whips including the deputy leader of the House and five members of the cabinet refused to support a motion congratulating their own prime minister.

At Business Questions on Thursday I read an extract from the Ministerial Code on the principle of collective responsibility. It says that ‘Ministers should be able to express their views frankly in the expectation that they can argue freely in private while maintaining a united front when decisions have been reached.’

The Liberal Democrats have got it completely the wrong way round. They argue in public but in private they won’t stand up to the Tories, however much the prime minister humiliates them.

Unemployment rose again this week to well over two and a half million, the highest level for 17 years including over one million young people now on the growing dole queue. On Tuesday, the justice secretary admitted that Britain was facing ‘a long period of youth unemployment’.

Instead of resigning itself to a long period of high youth unemployment and another wasted generation, I said in the chamber that the government must do everything it can to stop it by adopting Labour’s five point plan for jobs and growth which would give one million unemployed young people some hope for an otherwise bleak 2012.

As Christmas is approaching, I have been thinking about suitable gifts for the Cabinet. If Santa is struggling for ideas then perhaps he could deliver some flip flops to the deputy prime minister, a shredder to be shared between the business secretary and the minister of state at the Cabinet office and an espresso machine for the justice secretary so he doesn’t doze off in the chamber.

I was having trouble thinking of ideas for the prime minister until I discovered the Eton College online gift shop, where I found a very appropriate gift for him, the ‘decision dice’.

For those who are not familiar with the finer gifts available from the Eton College catalogue the dice are described as:

‘The ideal gift for the indecisive or those who just can’t make up their minds Presented in stylish chrome box engraved with the college coat of arms.’ Given the number of government U-turns this year I couldn’t think of anything more suitable.

Finally I’d like to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Angela Eagle is shadow leader of the house and MP for Wallasey

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Photo: Jonny Watt