He won agreement for it only last week, with a vague date of sometime next summer.

So many times before the European Community made vague dates to have programs and never delivered on the nitty-gritty, but this looks like a conspicuous success for the community."

A truly liberalising services directive would be the most fundamental sign of Europe reforming, which it desperately needs to do now and not at some vague date in the future.

One had often heard the words, but the idea that they could ever have an immediate practical significance, that it should not be at some vague date, but now, to-day, that was a tremendous, a staggering thought.

Vague dates had been made half-a-dozen times since then, and each had been broken by Spawn for some very important reasons, an unexpected radio appearance, problems at the Amsterdam office that necessitated a flight, a speech to write, a bout of flu brought on by working so many late nights.