They had a great future behind them

POWER is a strange thing. Having it or not having it has different effects on people. Those who lust for it dedicate years of their lives to acquiring it. Some succeed, some do not. Some achieve a tiny amount but, as if intoxicated by it, become little Napoleons. The elegant and the gracious can absorb huge amounts but remain civil and courteous.

More noticeable is when it ebbs away. While it is there, the possessor is as if inflated. They beam, they strut, they acknowledge the plaudits with a lordly wave. When it fades, they are as a helium balloon that has developed a slow leak. They deflate.

There was a picture recently of Angela Merkel in Athens with Evzone guards towering over her. Once the all-powerful Mutti Merkel, mistress of all she surveyed, she seemed drained, exhausted, half-inflated. She knows her political end is nigh. Soon she will hand over and all the fawning courtiers will fawn on someone else.

She is not the only one. Changes are coming east of Calais. At least four premiers sit on trembling thrones. The EU Commission, headed by the wobbling Juncker, the conniving Selmayr and the haughty Barnier, behave like mediaeval liege lords – but how long have they got? Right across Europe the proles are rising, using their votes to express their exasperation.

My prediction? Within four years there are five countries which, if given a referendum would do the same as the British two years ago.

And the key will be the failure of the euro to produce the promised prosperity.