Robert Peston - inside out

Three years ago, I wrote a front-page article for the Financial Times saying that the recently elected Labour government had become more positive about joining the euro and was even contemplating membership within the lifetime of the current parliament.

In my naivety, I had thought I was merely doing an impartial reporter's job of describing government thinking, based on conversations with ministers and officials in Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Treasury.

But this was one of the rare occasions when a news story became a political event in its own right.