I agree with you, although a ‘United States of Europe’ to restore the might of Europe to its ‘proper’ place as a global superpower able to go toe-to-toe with the US has always been the goal. There has never been a shift in policy; the EU has not ‘lost its way’: it is more committed to the federalist aims of its founding fathers than ever.

Let me make a few predictions for the years ahead, see how close I get:

• Brexit will be overturned by any means necessary
• EU Army; first steps toward the erosion of the rights of member states to host their own armies
• Huge increase in power and remit for the EU border defence force
• National vetoes removed
• Adoption of the Euro a mandatory requirement of membership
• Mandatory classes in all schools promoting/’explaining’ the European Project
• European directive establishing French and German as the joint official languages of the EU, and that they must be taught to all EU schoolchildren as peers to the national language