Since anything that can be mis-understood will be misunderstood, I must start with some disclaimers. I am not urging the EU should end. Like the Holy Roman Empire, it may spend many years in gentle decline doing little good and little harm. Nor am I urging that the UK or any other member state should leave the EU. What I am saying is that the EU no longer deserves the devotion of practical idealists. When voices in Paris or Berlin say the answer to any problem is “more Europe”, by which they mean more centralised power to EU institutions, we should turn a deaf ear. And when some leaders say that “without the euro there is no Europe” we should shrug our shoulders and look at an atlas to reassure ourselves.
由于一切可能被誤解的事情都將遭到誤解，我必須以免責聲明開篇。我不是在敦促歐盟(EU)解體。就像神圣羅馬帝國(Holy Roman Empire)一樣，歐盟可能要在很多年內緩慢衰落，既無益也無害。我也不是在敦促英國或者任何其他任何成員國退出歐盟。我想說的是，歐盟不再值得務實的理想主義者熱愛。當巴黎或者柏林有聲音表示，任何問題的解決方法都是“更加歐洲化”，即增強歐盟機構的集權時，我們應該置若罔聞。當某些領導人表示，“沒有歐元就沒有歐洲”時，我們應該聳聳肩，看看地圖冊，好讓自己安心。