Our old friend Louis Michel, former Belgian foreign minister, semi-apologist for genocide in the Congo, and now, remarkably, the EU’s development commissioner, has been commenting on the recent EU referendums:

“It is said that the citizens are always right. Why do they have to be always right? Even I am not always right! But I am prepared to admit this. Why would the citizens not admit it? Politicians should not follow the citizens blindly, they should go in front of the people and show them the way.”

In theory, of course, he has a point, but in coming from an EU Commissioner, that commonsense political observation has a whole different meaning.

The writer of the piece that quotes Michel, Paul Belien, notes that the Development Commissioner is a great admirer of Paul-Henri Spaak, one of the EU’s founding fathers. Belien also reports that in his memoirs Spaak acknowledged that “public opinion was indifferent” to European unification, but this was just fine: “The work was done by a minority who knew what they wanted.”

They still do.

As it happens, I’ve just finished reading a fascinating – and important book by Mr Belien (“A Throne in Brussels”) on Belgian history (yes, yes, I know that that does not sound promising) and its significance for the history and the future of the EU.

In two words: nothing good.