We are at that moment in Animal Farm when the gentle carthorse Clover looks through the window to see the pigs playing cards and drinking a toast with men.

The first test would be to refuse a capitulation in Ukraine.” The problem is whether Europe is able to rise up to what European leaders now call its biggest security challenge in generations. Doing so would require an immediate increase in military spending,

Speaking in Munich last week, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, offered a taste of how the home of fine wines, classical architecture and welfare cheques faces humiliation, when he ridiculed Europe as decadent and undemocratic.