Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

Some people find it difficult to argue with a woman Prime Minister and shrivel up.

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour.