Daniel Hannan (ECR). – Mr President, this is the 20th time that I’ve sat here and spent two hours nodding through budget increases. In those 20 years, there’s been just one fixed rule of every EU budget, and it’s this: it only ever rises. We’re way past the point where people are trying to match spending to specific need. The EU is now seen as an end in itself. There’s a general mood in this Chamber – I think if you’re honest, you’ll all recognise it – that it is better for the EU to be doing something even if it does it badly, than for the nation states to be doing it more efficiently.

Now in fairness, this is an attitude common to almost every organisation. Any bureaucracy over time becomes primarily interested in its own aggrandisement. Its primary purpose becomes to spend more on itself and its notional stated purpose becomes secondary – if you’re lucky. But you’ve just got to ask the question: is there any sum of money that is enough to sell a fundamentally flawed idea?