With grubby backdoor stitch-ups like this, thank God we’re going!

ThE process of extricating ourselves from the EU has turned out to be so prolonged and painful that it’s sometimes easy to forget our original reasons for wanting to leave.

I can’t be the only person who, having voted for Brexit, occasionally asks himself if it ’s worth all the bitterness and division: the name-calling, ruined dinner parties and former friends scuttling by on the other side of the street.

It’s remarkable how the arguments about sovereignty and controlling our own borders and the undesirability of a European superstate have virtually disappeared amid squabbles over No Deal and a second referendum.

So I have given thanks to the EU over recent days as European leaders have spent hours horse-trading behind closed doors. they have been selecting the successors of Jean- Claude Juncker and Donald tusk, who have loomed so large in our lives.

We have been reminded how funda - mentally undemocratic and secretive the organisation is. P eople who will wield enormous power have been chosen without the voters of Europe getting a look-in.

thank God we’re leaving! thank God (unless intransigent Remainers finagle another referendum) we will soon no longer be part of a body that furtively picks our future rulers — for these people are far more than functionaries — without consulting the people.

this club is not for me. Nor do I believe that many Remainers watched the wrangling with any sense of pride. In a democratic age, it ’ s impossible to defend such practices. Let ’s get out while we can, without ill will or venom.

Which is why the boorish behaviour of the 29 Brexit P arty MEPs at the opening ceremony of the European Parliament in Strasbourg was so appalling. they turned their backs as the EU anthem, Beethoven ’s Ode t o Joy, was performed.

how rude and petty and spiteful they were. how shaming to this nation. they have been elected to the European P arliament and are cheerfully drawing salaries and expenses. Yet they behaved like uncouth members of a student debating society.

Whatmust cultivated Europeans ( and there are some in the Euro - pean P arliament) think of the British political class, which used to have a reputation on the continent of being polite, wellmannered and tolerant?

the smaller Liberal Democrat contingent didn’t behave much better, sporting , on yellow t- shirts, the undemocratic slogan ‘B******s to Brexit ’. this was a coarse and puerile gesture — and a little threatening.

Do MEPs of both parties speak for modern Britain? If so, the EU will be relieved to be rid of us. I

feel ashamed, as I did when British football hooligans went on the rampage abroad. these oafs in Strasbourg are supposed to be our representatives.

My question to the Brexit Party, whose loutish behaviour was particularly mortifying , is this: why don’t you draw attention to the autocratic nature of the EU by employing reasoned argument, rather than cheap and demean - ing tricks?

For the evidence is there, writ large. Cutting grubby deals in private, as European leaders have been doing, is not merely undemocratic. It leads to outcomes that are likely to be injurious to the citizens of the EU.

the whole process is a Franco - German stitch- up. Neither country necessarily gets the person it wants in every post, but each has to be happy with the final compromise. angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, originally pushed the centre-Right German politician Manfred W eber for the crucial role of P resident of the European Commission in succession to Mr Juncker.

But P resident Emmanuel Macron of France didn ’t like the look of W eber because of his political background. he preferred centre-Left Frans timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister.

however, various Right-wing governments, such as those in Poland, hungary and Italy rejected timmermans, where - upon Macron championed Ursula von der Leyen, a member of Mrs Merkel’s centre -Right party and Germany’s defence minister.

after much haggling , she was chosen, despite having been embroiled in a controversy over the awarding of contracts (she was eventually exonerated). From November 1, she will occupy the most important position in the EU.

Is she the best person for the job? No one can say — though she wasn’t the favourite to follow Mrs Merkel when the Chancellor stands down in 2021. Not fit to lead Germany, apparently, but suitable to lead the EU.

What is clear is that no single European voter had a direct say in choosing Ms von der Leyen, though it is true the European Parliament will have to endorse her and some on the Left may vote against.

Oh, I should have said: Ms von der Leyen, like Jean- Claude Juncker, is a passionate advocate of a United States of Europe and a European army. Like her pre - decessor, she hates the idea of Brexit. Y esterday, she told a private audience EU negotiators had done a ‘noble job’.

What would have happened if Britain wasn ’ t leaving the EU? She would still become President of the Commission because she is the incarnation of the EU’s values — just like Juncker, whose coronation David Cameron humiliatingly opposed in vain in 2014.

Ursula von der Leyen is more of the same: an unelected (at least in Brussels) member of a European political elite that wants to extend the powers of the EU in relation to individual countries. that ’s why I’m glad we’re leaving.

By the way, I don ’t draw much comfort from the news that senior Eurocrat Martin Selmayr , who appears to dislike Britain, faces the axe later this year under a reshuffle. there are plenty more where he came from.

a second president was also chosen by EU leaders. Charles Michel will give up the job of Belgium ’ s interim P rime Minister to fill the shoes of Donald t usk as P resident of the European Council, a role co-ordinating member states.

MIChELis a close friend of Macron, which is cosy. he’s another arch- euro federalist who wants ‘ever closer union’, and will be no friend to Britain as it leaves his precious EU.

a third president was also crowned by European leaders: Christine Lagarde, who has run the International Monetary Fund since 2011, pocketing more than £3.6 million tax-free in the process, will become President of the European Central Bank.

this is a bizarre appointment. For one thing , she has been convicted of criminal negligence over a French corruption scandal, though I doubt this was of much concern to the panjandrums who selected her.

For another, she is a politician, rather than an economist, and not obviously suited to the role of central banker. She was a lynchpin in P roject Fear before the June 2016 referendum and prophesied a hitherto -unrealised economic catastrophe for the UK.

as Britain has not adopted the euro, maybe Ms Lagarde’s future role is not our business. On the other hand, it isn ’t in anybody’s interests for the eurozone to flounder.

these three freshly minted presidents will wield enormous sway over the peoples of Europe. they will try to strengthen the powers of Brussels, though they are certain to be resisted by populist governments in hungary, Italy and Poland.

No one can say how the experiment of further European integration will end. Looking at its latest manifestation, I can only say that I am more glad than ever that Britain will not be part of it.