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By the time readers will have read these few paragraphs, you may be left with the breathlessness of an airline pilot who’s just realised he landed his plane slipping yards below the belly of another one taking off in the opposite direction. They call it a near miss, don’t they? To make you grasp what British people spared themselves in what I call 'the historic UK near miss with Europe' – I ask you to consider the following. Please don’t quit halfway through - because the shocking bit comes at the end. Picture this - the UK Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie is sitting at an ordinary meeting to discuss finance.



Midway through, some foreign technocrats enter the scene and demand immediate attention. Well, as it happened these men are from the EU Commission and the ECB and have the power to question the chairman at will.

The UK always maintained a safe distance from this abomination of democracy, and finally voted out it altogether Paolo Barnard

Here’s the conversation as it unfolds: “Mr Tyrie, will you and your party back ‘our man’ as next British Prime Minister? We mean, now.” The question, in its absurdity, takes the chairman aback, and he replies: “Gentlemen, we do have a Prime Minister in power, we’ll vote at the next General Election”. “No, Sir,” impatiently replies the foreign technocrat. “Let us be straight here: either you back ‘our man’ as next British PM now or we will bankrupt your county in no time, is that clear?”. The foreign technocrats leave, and it becomes apparent to the UK Treasury Committee that this coup d’etat has already been presented as an “offer they can’t refuse” to top British politicians and MPs. In fact four days later the incumbent Prime Minister suddenly resigns and the technocrats’ man enters Downing Street. These events didn't happen in the UK. However, if you think this fictional scenario sounds like an absurd B movie script - then look at what happened on November 9 2011, in my home country Italy. Instead of Mr Tyrie, it's Italian Senate Budget Committee Chair Massimo Garavaglia, a government coalition partner. The EU technocrats remain who they were, and ‘their man’ is EU hawk Mario Monti, who in fact became unelected Italian Prime Minister just seven days later on November 16.

GETTY • YOUTUBE In an Express.co.uk article Italian journalist Paolo Barnard explained how Brexit SAVED the UK