In July Juncker appointed hardline Britain-basher Michel Barnier as his chief Brexit negotiator, today the Conference of Presidents has named Guy Verhofstadt as his counterpart. What can we expect from Farage’s old bête noire? The week after the referendum result, Verhofstadt mused: “The rats are fleeing the sinking ship”. Though he also made some surprisingly sensible comments post-Brexit:

“Stop sleepwalking to a disaster. Either the EU will change, or it will die. The Council needs to recognise that citizens are not against Europe, but against this Europe.”

He was right about that…