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 ouroriginal reasonsfor 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: t he n ame-calling, r uined d inner 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 d isappeared 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 fundamentally undemocratic and secretive the organisation is. People who will wield enormous power have been c hosen 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 p eople are far more than functionaries — without consulting the people.

this c lub i s n ot f or m e. N or d o I b elieve 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 Party MEPs at the o pening ceremony of the European P arliament in Strasbourg was so a ppalling. they turned their backs as theEUanthem,Beethoven’sOdetoJoy, was performed.

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

What must cultivated Europeans (and there are some in the European Parliament) think of the British p olitical c lass, w hich u sed to have a reputation on the c ontinent of being polite, wellmannered and tolerant?

the smaller Liberal Democrat contingent didn’t behave much better, sporting, on yellow t-shirts, the undemocraticslogan ‘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 B ritish football hooligans went ontherampageabroad.theseoafs in Strasbourg are supposed to be our representatives.

My q uestion t o t he B rexit P arty, whose loutish behaviour was p articularly mortifying, is this: why don’t you draw attention to the autocratic nature of the EU by e mploying r easoned a rgument, rather than cheap and demeaning tricks?

For the evidence is there, writ large. Cutting grubby deals in p rivate, a s E uropean l eaders h ave been d oing, i s n ot m erely u ndemocratic. It leads to outcomes that are likely to be injurious to the citizens of the EU.

the whole process is a FrancoGerman stitch-up. Neither c ountry necessarily gets the p erson i t w ants i n e very p ost, b ut eachhastobehappywiththefinal c ompromise. a ngela M erkel, Chancellor o f G ermany, o riginally pushed t he c entre-Right G erman politician Manfred Weber for the crucial role of President of the European Commission in s uccession to Mr Juncker.

But President EmmanuelMacron of France didn’t like the look of Weber because of his p olitical b ackground. h e p referred centre-Left F rans t immermans, a former Dutch foreign minister.

however, various Right-wing governments, such as those in Poland, hungary and Italy rejected timmermans, whereupon M acron c hampioned U rsula 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 e ventually e xonerated). F rom November 1, she will occupy the most important position 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 inchoosingMsvonderLeyen,though it is true the European Parliament will have to endorse herandsomeontheLeftmayvote against.

Oh, I should have said: Ms von der Leyen, like Jean-Claude Juncker, i s a p assionate a dvocate of a United States of Europe and a European army. Like her predecessor,shehatestheideaofBrexit. Yesterday, she told a p rivate audience EU negotiators had done a ‘noble job’.

What would have happened if in Britain wasn’t leaving the EU? She would still become President of the Commission becausesheistheincarnationof the EU’s values — just like Juncker, w hose c oronation D avid Cameron humiliatingly opposed in vain in 2014.

Ursula von der Leyen is more of the s ame: a n u nelected ( at l east i n Brussels) member of a European political e lite t hat w ants t o e xtend the p owers o f t he E U i n r elation t o individual countries. that’s why I’m g lad w e’re l eaving.

By the way, I don’t draw much comfort f rom t he n ews t hat s enior Eurocrat Martin Selmayr, who appears to dislike Britain, faces theaxelaterthisyearunderareshuffle. there are plenty more where he came from.

a second president was also c hosen by EU leaders. Charles Michel will give up the job of Belgium’s interim Prime M inister to fill the shoes of Donald tusk as President of the European Council, a role co-ordinating member states.

MIChEL i s a c lose f riend of Macron, which is cosy. he’s another arch-euro federalist who w ants ‘ ever c loser u nion’, a nd 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 £3.6m illion tax-free in the process, w ill b ecome P resident o f the European Central Bank.

this is a bizarre appointment. For one thing, she has been c onvicted of criminal negligence over a F rench c orruption s candal, though I doubt this was of much concern t o t he p anjandrums w ho selected her.

For another, she is a politician, ratherthananeconomist,andnot o bviously s uited t o t he r ole o f central b anker. S he w as a l ynchpin in Project 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 p residents will wield enormous sway over the peoples of Europe. they will try to strengthen the powers of Brussels, though theyarecertaintoberesistedby populist governments in h ungary, Italy and Poland.

No one can say how the e xperiment of further European integration will end. Looking at its l atest m anifestation, I c an o nly say t hat I a m m ore g lad t han e ver that Britain will not be part of it.