John Major once came back from an important European summit claiming that the result was “game, set and match” for Britain. Gordon Brown returned from last Thursday’s meeting in Brussels having broken his racket, lost his balls and developed a thumping political headache.

On the face of it, it did not look that bad. After all, Britain got a representative into one of the top two new jobs in Europe. but mr Brown was woefully outmanoeuvred. He continued pushing the cause of Tony Blair as president of the European Union council even after the Germans, and Labour’s socialist partners in Europe, had made it clear that they did not want him. as a result mr Brown had to accept Herman van Rompuy, the haiku-writing Belgian prime minister. mr van Rompuy is an out-and-out federalist presiding over a dysfunctional country, so that can hardly be marked down as a diplomatic triumph.

Then mr Brown tried to get David Miliband, Geoff Hoon or even Lord Mandelson into the post of high representative for foreign affairs. He failed on all counts and ended up with the unknown Baroness Ashton, who — embarrassingly for mr Brown — was the preferred candidate of other EU leaders.

Lady Ashton has by all accounts done a good job as Britain’s stand-in European commissioner. Perhaps it was the contrast with her predecessor, Lord Mandelson, with his gift for rubbing everybody up the wrong way.

She has shown diplomatic skills in dealing with thorny issues over international trade. but that does not make it right.

The objection to mr Blair was that he carried too much political baggage. The criticism of Lady Ashton is that she has never been elected to office and carries no political baggage at all. to be unknown in other countries is not unusual for British politicians. to be unknown in your own country is a problem at a time when the EU is regarded by most British voters as a distant, faceless bureaucracy.

Eurosceptics feared that a big figure like mr Blair would have given the federalist train too much momentum. Europe has always been more effective when proceeding by stealth. that is why Jose Manuel Barroso, the commission president, favoured two unknowns. meanwhile, as a result of the deal, the key economic jobs in the European commission will go to France and Germany, which will take advantage of the backlash against the banks to tilt the balance further against Anglo-Saxon capitalism. this could be bad for Britain and worrying for Europe. many are now arguing that Britain would have been better served by securing one of these two key commissioner’s jobs.

Things are even worse for mr Brown, who may now have a full-blown political crisis on his hands. The fact that Lord Mandelson wanted the EU foreign job indicates he knows that his rescue mission for mr Brown is doomed. He has, in effect, given up.

Mr Brown failed to get mr Miliband to take the Brussels job and make way for Lord Mandelson. now he has two disgruntled senior ministers in his cabinet. He is also known to be trying to get Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, into the Treasury, further alienating Alistair Darling, a once loyal colleague who increasingly has little time for the prime minister. to force out either mr Miliband or mr Darling could lead to the collapse of this government. so he is left with a disgruntled cabinet, a restless Lord Mandelson and an unknown and untested EU high representative.

Not bad for a week’s work, prime minister.