The EU mind at the BBC.

A BBC Europhile laments the collapse of the dreams of establishing a European Empire and lets the mask slip with this litttle gem:

For myself, I had always been an enthusiastic pro-European and an unashamed believer in a federal European state. Like many English people of my tastes and proclivities, I rather fancied myself propping up zinc bars, sipping pastis and listening to the musical chink-clank of petanque. 

I viewed an increasingly united Europe as a necessary counterweight to US world hegemony and Russian idiocy, while also being a handy cosmopolitan stick with which to beat the backs of uptight Little Englanders.

That seems like a pretty fair characterisation of a BBC European Empire booster; a man who sees himself in Continental cafes, drinking anise-tinged cocktails and wouldn't be caught dead watching something as English as bowls, but is perfectly happy with petanque.  A man who isn't so much interested in dissolving nationalism as establishing Empire over sovereign states, is anti-american while critcising Russia strictly for the sake of form (and very likely for abandoning Communism).

But I think the final bit is most telling.  Above all else, he is a man who despises his own country and sees the entire, rotten European project as a stick to beat his fellow, retrograde countrymen.

It's a telling difference of philosophy.  A decent man who disliked his own country would just leave.  This sort isn't satisfied unless they conform to his will.