This evening representatives of 25 states will watch as France and Germany decide who they will appoint as President and Foreign Minister of Europe. I’m a strong pro-European, and the reason Britain isn’t involved in this decision-making process is because over the years our politicians of all colours have maintained an unhealthy Euro-scepticism. It’s blindingly obvious to anyone who sets foot out of this lovely country that those states which strongly support the EU are doing rather better than we are. I want a slice of this too, but no, we have to trudge our “independent” path as a non-voting satellite of the USA.

Why are we the last to emerge from the global recession, when we were assured we were the country best placed to weather it? Why, after a triumphant promise that we had reached the end of boom and bust, are we now bust? Why was Britain still enduring rationing in 1955, nine years after the war ended, and long after the defeated nations had got their economies back on keel? Why are we in Afghanistan?

In The Captive Part 1, (La Prisonnière), published in 1923, Marcel Proust wrote

“It is beyond question that in the remote future a Franco-German rapprochement might come into being and would be highly profitable to both countries, nor would France have the worst of the bargain, I dare say.”

He put these words into the mouth of the ambassador M. de Norpois. Proust moved in high social and political circles and knew of what he spoke.

And now it has come to pass, while we look on from the sidelines.

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