There is a distorted perception of what goes on in Brussels. No one reports on the Commission taking a hundred initiatives from its predecessor off the table in order to shift competencies back to member state governments.

I am chilled by the realization of how similar circumstances in Europe in 2013 are to those of 100 years ago.

Much as I would have liked to respond factually and truthfully to each and every piece of misinformation spread by the Brexit campaign, it was important that I stayed out of the domestic political debate. It was David Cameron's task to win the UK referendum, not ours.

Yesterday's shining heroes of Brexit have become the sorrowful heroes of today.

[Boris]Johnson, [Nigel] Farage, they are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots don't abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board.

I'm not deaf and the Commission isn't operating in a parallel world of legal texts.

Article 50 governs the exit from the European Union and here there can also be no renegotiation.