There For Everyone To Read

I very rarely disagree with Stuart Reid. But when I do, it is usually over his adherence to Auberon Waugh's theory of the EU as, at least potentially, a reborn Christendom. A nice idea, perhaps. But undoubtedly nothing to do with reality. (In spite of which, I am likely to dedicate one of my eventual books to the memory of Paul Foot, Alan Watkins, Auberon Waugh and Michael Wharton.)

However, in this week's installment of his unmissable Charterhouse column on the back of the Catholic Herald, Stuart writes that, "The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, was there for everyone to read, and it openly calls for "ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe". There was thus no excuse for "informed people" to be ill-informed. Enoch Powell and Tony Benn tried to warn us during the referendum of 1975, but happily we did not listen."

Stuart also has a go at "fundamentalist Protestant conspiracy theorists", and at "members of the British National Party and the Communist Party of Britain". Jolly good. But it is only in the EU's Council of Ministers and on the floor of the European Parliament that we are subject to the legislative will of Dutch ultra-Calvinists who will not have women as candidates, and to that of assorted Stalinists and Trotskyists, neo-Fascists and neo-Nazis.