On the eve of the UK’s 1983 general election, Neil Kinnock, an opposition Labour politician and future party leader, made an impassioned appeal to voters. If they re-elected Margaret Thatcher, the iron-willed Conservative premier, he told them: “I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.”

In today’s European Union, a similar piece of advice would be: “I warn you not to come from a small member state. I warn you not to come from a new member state. I warn you to keep quiet.”