Fellow expat Englishman, Tim Worstall (at least I think he's a fellow expat Englishman - she could be a dog for all I know to misquote a famous cartoon), has recently turned his focus on the Eurocrats in Brussels. He kindly credits me for doing the minimal research into Latin required to come up with the critical phrase:
Ceterum censeo Consilium Europaeum esse delendam.
(although, ahem, my scholarship is apparently insufficient to earn me a place on his blogroll)
This phrase is likely to appear frequently whenever anyone, including yours truly, examines the looming catastrophe of the EU which seems to be the poster child for bureaucratic ineptitude and unforseen consequences.
Personally I have benefited from the EU in a number of ways, for example I live and work on the French Riviera instead of gloomy Blighty thanks entrirely to the EU's labour market deregulation and I benefit from the EU's deregulation of the airline industry. But on the other hand I also suffer for it too by paying more for things than I otherwise should. The fact that the EU has occasionally managed to remove the worst protectionist barriers does not mean that it is an unalloyed good or even "mostly harmless". Fortunately it is such a mess and has expanded to levels that even its most ardent supporters have trouble with (e.g. the EU constitution) that it seems certain that the whole thing will fail. Unfortunately its destruction is likely to be messy. As today's Telegraph leader shows, economically speaking the Eurozone is up the proverbial creek and lacking any locomotive capability. This means that the EU is set for some very nasty times. I am not clear why the countries of Eastern Europe were so keen to join, I fear they may regret their keeness and be dragged down with the rest of the wreck.
There is however one thing we know for sure about the EU, that it is bad for Europe and probably the world as a whole and Ceterum censeo Consilium Europaeum esse delendam.
PS My rusty O level latin suggests that this phrase would be improved with a strategically placed quam celerime ...