The EU is a busted flush

During the furious debates that raged over Brexit in the UK in 2016, Leavers demonised the European Union as a Leviathan of gigantic strength which was robbing the UK of control over its own affairs.

Remainers argued that, on the contrary, the UK was far stronger belonging to one of the greatest power blocs in the world, giving the British people greater commercial opportunities and political influence than they might otherwise possess.

Eight years on, both the malign and benign images of the EU’s power for good or evil have turned out to be delusory. In a decade marked by ferocious wars in Europe and elsewhere, and by escalating conflicts with the US over trade, the EU states individually and collectively have been shown to wield astonishingly limited clout, punching far below their w