You know that scare story you read about the EU? Maybe about how it banned whole-life sentences for murderers, or about how how it’s making bosses let workers choose the colour of office carpets?

Well, it isn’t true. Either it was a made-up lie to start with, or the problem was our own army of overzealous bureaucrats.

I don’t understand how the myth of EU overregulation got started. All you need to do is compare India, which runs on the British system of government, with France, Spain, Greece, or Italy – this is strong evidence that our homegrown system is the rule-bound one…