UK Prime Minister David Cameron might not be everyone’s cup of tea. He is certainly out of favour with the Merkozy duo, after his blocking changes to the European Union treaty to impose collective fiscal discipline late last year.

Mr Cameron, though, is not one to be put off by criticism. Many label him arrogant and cocky. That may be true. But he does have the courage of his convictions and is a doer. Mr Cameron has again ruffled feathers at the Davos meeting in Switzerland, by telling a CNN news crew that he was “glad to get out of the room” when leaders began discussing the single currency issue.

In the last EU summit (the next one convenes on Monday), Nikolas Sarkozy had actually said to Cameron that Eurozone leaders were “sick and fed up” of listening to his criticism, despite the UK not even sharing the common currency.

But while many immediately thought: “Yes, Britain, please be quiet and only open your mouth when you finally decide to join the eurozone”, the reality is actually quite different. At the latest Davos meeting, Mr Cameron reminded eurozone countries that the UK, a kingdom made up of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and overseas territories, does actually share the pound sterling.

Each country within the UK has its own bank, but there is also the UK Central Bank. Equally, each country had their own bank notes in the not so distant past and some are still in circulation. The argument Mr Cameron made is that the sterling can serve as a model for the euro, and he explained why. There is no doubt that just like Europe, the ‘value’ of money in the UK differs greatly when one compares, for example, Central London to Sheffield, Grenock or Llandudno.

What Mr Cameron points out is that the UK has had a single currency for one hell of a long time, and it is a very good model, as he puts it, for the eurozone to follow. Given the current state of the eurozone, maybe he is actually right. The euro is flawed, and we know it. Yet the sterling, despite taking massive knocks in the crisis, is still strong and is still valued overseas. Why? It is actually quite simple. Mr Cameron argues, and his point becomes very clear, that a single currency can only survive if there is fiscal, economic and trading union discipline, like there is with the pound sterling. This, he said, is backed up by the UK central bank and the central government’s eternal manoeuverings to make up for trade shortfalls within the UK itself.

So in other words, what he was told to shut up about is actually what the EU itself continues hemming and hawing about – fiscal union, political union and trading flexibility within the whole bloc. So we will have to ask the question of European leaders on Monday. Are you actually going to listen to this man at all? We admit that he might be a tad cocky and no one wants to admit that the UK is actually doing better at something than the rest of Europe… but should we cut our nose to spite our faces? Perhaps not. Let Cameron talk, and this time, listen. We might actually learn something. Whatever the case may be, the eurozone is wounded, whether mortally or not remains to be seen.